Homotherium

About: Homotherium is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 71 publications have been published within this topic receiving 3238 citations. The topic is also known as: scimitar cat & scimitar-toothed cat.

The Felidae of Rancho La Brea

Abstract: Were one to select any single item to illustrate the most striking phase in the long list of exceptional features of our North American Pleistocene life as exhibited by the Rancho La Brea fauna, it would presumably be the representation of the Felidae. Excepting only the dire wolves, no group in the fauna of Rancho La Brea is represented by such a multitude of specimens, ranging up to more than one thousand individuals of the sabre-tooth cat and an exceptionally large number of individuals of the great lion-like cat, with a limited number of smaller types. It is certain that no other deposit thus far known in the history of paleontology has furnished such a marvelous abundance of perfectly preserved material. Moreover, there are to be found in this assemblage the highest and most efficient stages in evolution of two great divisions of the cat group; one being shown in the sabre-tooth, the acme of cat specialization on this line, the other represented in the magnificent Felis atrox, a veritable giant of the true cat tribe. Among the smaller cats occurring at Rancho La Brea the puma and the wildcat are definitely recorded. While the frequency of occurrence of these various types undoubtedly reflects the environmental conditions prevailing in the vicinity of Rancho La Brea during the period of accumulation of the asphalt deposits, it likewise suggests the approach which the entire assemblage makes to the living fauna of the region. Thus, while the Rancho La Brea cats include in their number types like those of the present, such as puma and wildcat, the geologic antiquity of the fauna as a whole is emphasized by the preponderance of extinct representatives of the feline group. In the number and variety of types represented, the Rancho La Brea group of cats exhibits a striking similarity to that described from the British caves. Increased appreciation of the unusual characteristics of the larger Pleistocene members of the cat tribe has come unquestionably with more inti- mate knowledge of the great living felines. A broad survey of the Quaternary history of the Felidae emphasizes the wide distribution and importance of this family in the past, and illustrates that principle of change which has brought about restriction of range and extinction in so many groups of mammals.