Friday What-A-Big-Kitty Blogging
Tito’s Friend
As I mentioned yesterday, my old dog Tito has been having night terrors. The medication he’s on takes time to build up in his system, but last night was another tough one. It’s hard watching your old friend in difficulty when nothing you do seems to help. The vet warned me about this because the tranquilizers I had been giving him can’t be administered as the new medication takes hold. During the day he still enjoys the snorts and walks, and his eyes are still bright and clear, so I’m not ready to love him enough to let him go. It hasn’t come to that yet.
Back when I first started thinking about Olduvai in book form I painted this piece in acrylic on illustration board. Tito is only 9 here and still in possession of the beautiful demarcation across his chest that he lost (along with life number 5) on a horseshoe stake buried in snow. The picture is a little grainy and not as clean as the art in my earlier posts, but I had only an old low resolution scan to work with. For comparison, Tito is 26 inches at the shoulder.
For a slightly larger if somewhat fuzzy image click here
Tito’s friend here is the North American species of scimitar cat, Homotherium serum. Most people are familiar with the classic saber-tooth, Smilodon, the “tiger” of La Brea Tar Pits fame, but relatively few know of this unusual cat. As you can see, Homotherium (literally “man’s beast” because the first fossils of the European species were found in association with human remains and artifacts – it’s not clear who was eating who) had a markedly different body type from most felids. The head was held high on the long, strong neck. The forelegs were elongated, while the hind quarters were rather squat with feet perhaps partially plantigrade.
While the 9 inch (+) daggers of Smilodon were somewhat laterally flattened, the 5 inch canines of Homotherium were razor-sharp blades, serrated both front and back. These were not teeth for holding on to struggling prey animals. Suffocating or throttling or crushing a victim was not the scimitar cat’s MO. This was a very fast felid of open country with acceleration and agility. The most likely form of attack would have been a lightning fast slash producing a profusely bleeding wound. It would have been awfully tough to watch on Animal Planet, but allowed Homotherium to strike prey as large as not-so-young mammoths. In a cave in Texas, the bones of both adult scimitar cats and cubs have been found in association with a large number of (mostly juvenile) mammoth and mastodon teeth.
I apologize for jumping around so. Some day I’ll have enough images to put them in some sort of order as to time and location and make better connections. But then again, I guess a blog is supposed to be forever a work in progress.
December 24th, 2005 at 2:20 am
I could (and should) have added this to the post itself, but I’m tired and working on the now infamous proboscidean post. The bones of Homotherium in North America have been found from Alaska to Texas, Oregon to Tennessee. Apparently it was never an abundant animal perhaps utilizing enormous hunting territories.
December 24th, 2005 at 2:31 am
Amazing animal! Do you have any pictures of the fossils, especially teeth?
And you are right - a blog is an endless meandering work in progress. Proboscideans will come one day. In the meantime, post whatever you want. And the Big Cat Friday blogging is too cool - no matter how many bloggers post cat pictures on Fridays, yours is bound to be more exciting than anyone’s.
December 24th, 2005 at 3:28 am
I beleive I speak for not only myself but Hank and probably everyone else when I say MORE TITO!
December 24th, 2005 at 4:59 am
coturnix: No pictures of fossils of this animal although I have handled an actual skull. Leave it to me NOT to get pictures. I had to rely on some very good skull and long bone drawings, and a rather complete set of measurements I accummulated from various museums and books. I didn’t have the option of the Internet at the time and was living in the vacation community of Mammoth Lakes, CA, which is beautiful, but 4 hours from a college library.
Chris: This could very easily become the adventures of “Tito, Mighty Hunter of Prehistory”! That, or I could pull a Olduvai version of “South Park” and be killed each week by a different beastie, “They killed Olduvai! You bastards!”
December 24th, 2005 at 7:39 am
We have a cat that has major seizures when he sleeps. We got him as a year-old stray, and he had these neurological problems when he arrived. He thrashes about whenever he sleeps deeply, and often throws himself off whatever surface he’s sleeping on. We put cushions around his sleeping spaces for him, but sometimes he misses those, and he’s never conscious enough to break his fall. He’s five now and has no idea of his deficits. He can’t retract his front claws and can’t extend his rear. His front legs are stiff, and he’s got hip dysplasia. He’s charming beyond belief, but only for us.
I guess that’s what happens when you love an animal. Their sleepless nights are yours. We wish Tito and you long nights of good sleep. Deep rest and good health.
December 24th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
Don’t apologize for “jumping”: I’m always amazed by what I find on your blog … and “jumping” makes it so … so “direct”!
Best wishes in this special time of the year to you and Tito!
’sort of know what it’s like!
Heartfelt wishes!
And … just keep on the way you prefer/feel like to do it:
blogging -at least for me- it’s this!
December 24th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
I’m scratching my old Lab’s sweet spot as I type(Now she’s walked off)
I wish the best for Tito and Rex’s cat.
Love the Homothere Pict.Tito is so cute:-)
I was wondering, Is Homotherium serum still regarded as a distinct species from H.latidens?Morphologically, the two species have less distinctness compared to Smilodon fatalis and S.populator,AFAIK.
Merry Christmas,Happy Hannakah,Happy Eid al-Fatr,Blessed Yule,and a Happy winter Soltice Holiday for all!
December 25th, 2005 at 12:04 am
Arctodus: It’s all according to who you talk to. Homotherium was a long-lived genus and when you add time to the mix our nice, neat species concepts sometimes get pounded into mush. In Europe Homotherium lasted until the end of the Pleistocene just like here in North America. However it doesn’t seem to have been a continuous population as the last animal found in eastern Asia is a “dwarfed” form from the middle of the Epoch. So I don’t know. Kurten suggests it in his 1980 book “Pleistocene Mammals of North America”, but Alan Turner in his 1997 book “The Big Cats, and their fossil relatives”, wonderfully illustrated by Mauricio Anton, still regards them as separate. The sloping back of serum isn’t found in latidens…but? I should probably just called my animal a NA Homotherium.
The American Marten (Martes Americana) now exists in a continuous population all across Alaska, Canada and the northern US, with fingers of that population extending south in high mountains as far as California and New Mexico. Recent DNA work however has shown that we really have the descendants of two separate (and in glacial times separated) groups of immigrants from Asia that just don’t mix much. The first wave (which also may be two groups) from the Rockies to the East Coast is one population, while the second inhabits panhandle Alaska, the Pacific Provinces of Canada and the West Coast states of the US, and seems to have more in common with Siberian Sable (Martes zibellina) than to their eastern (supposed) brothers. Aurghhh!!!!
December 25th, 2005 at 12:13 am
Why does “homotherium serum” make me think of a concoction blended up by a Mad Scientist? (”Hahahaaa! They laughed at me, but I’ll show them! I’ll show them all! The whole world will see! Now, Igor, bring me the syringe!”)
Beautiful picture, Carl. I know others have said this, but … seeing these things you paint makes these critters REAL to me in a way that nothing else does.
Having seen the skull, what can you say about the relative brain weight of this beastie? Was it as bright as modern big cats? Or do you think of it more as just a stupid killing machine?
December 25th, 2005 at 12:23 am
Hank: You could have asked me this in person tomorrow, but as long as the question is out here… Think of Homotherium AS a “modern big cat”. His brain case is no more “primitive” than a lion’s, and as far as North America goes, both animals have been extinct about the same amount of time.
December 25th, 2005 at 6:24 am
TY for the Info.
Yeah…Part of the problem with Northern Hemispheric genera is that many of the “species” are probably better off regarded as subspecies or “Species Complexes”.Ursus arctos, Canis Lupus and Lynx lynx etc. are good examples.The tremendous morphological and proportional variation in Ursus arctos was a taxonomic nightmare for quite a while.
December 27th, 2005 at 3:04 am
It’s so good to see a blog that is dedicated, both in words and in pictures, to the beauty and amazement that abounds in Natural History.
After reading all the horrible stories of Creationists trying to break down evolution in schools and attacking Science in general (and the necissary, but unpleasent by their very existance, rebuttals), it is great to have someone to constantly remind us why Natural History is so lovely, and why we need to fight to not have it taken away from our children.
On a more related subject: are the Saber Toothed Cats a good clade?
December 27th, 2005 at 11:53 am
I was just at the Page museum yesterday and saw Smilodon, the American lion and a wall with 400 dire wolf skulls. I was able to tell my son that I had just seen a picture of the American Lion next to his African cousin, and that the American one was a bit bigger. Thanks for helping my research!
I think I finally convinced him that these were not dinosaurs, but mammals that lived with the cavemen - close enough 8^). (He is six.)
The large bison they have on display would have been awesome to see. I wonder if the Homoterium could have taken that down.
There are a lot of bones in those tarpits!
December 27th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
Lowk: There are three recognized “tribes” of sabercats. They all apparently diverged from conical toothed cats before they diverged from each other, so the answer would be yes…I guess.
KeithB: Bison latifrons to come soon. American lions were sometimes able to handle them, so in their own way, Smilodon and Homotherium were probably also capable of utilizing latifrons as a prey item. I imagine they had to be really hungry though. It probably took teamwork unless the sabercats were able to cut quickly and run waiting for their victim to bleed out. Like I said in the post, it wouldn’t be easy to watch on Animal Planet.
December 28th, 2005 at 11:35 am
Aw, now I’m sad about Tito. I went with my Dad to ‘love our family dog enough to let him go’ and it was heart-wrenching. As I type, my 11 y.o. mini-schnauzer is lying in his doggie bed next to me. I’ve often tried to write about my bond with my doggie companions, but am left bereft of words. Who can understand how much we love these furry creatures?
May you and Tito get more good sleep, and last as long together as caninely possible.
December 28th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
This might be presuming a bit much, but any chance of a smilodon soon? I would like to give my son a picture of his new favorite animal.
I really like the cool display at the Page where they show a skeleton of smilodon and then superimpose an image of what the creature looked like “in the flesh,” though it did not look nearly alive as one of your paintings, OGeorge!
December 30th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
ogeorge, the cat’s configuration brings to mind the hyena - the strong, long neck, the elongated front legs and spring evident in the hind. and your description of how they likely felled their prey sounds kinda like how the hyena does it too.
am I violating any animal protocol by imagining a link here?
…
December 30th, 2005 at 1:38 pm
Peacebug (and everyone):
Carnivorous animals have only so many ways to taking down prey. None of it is as neat or efficient as we’d like it to be in our civilized mind’s eye. Homotherium was a much more agile and powerful animal (bodily - not in jaw power) than the living Hyaena. The sloping hindquarters may give the illusion of being relatively weak, but that is certainly not the case here. The muscle attachments on the bones were enormous compared to a hyaena. The scimitar cat most likely used his squat back end as a platform with which to brace itself for the manipulation of large prey animals with the long and powerful forelegs. After inflicting the wound, Homotherium would not have hung on. Its teeth could not stand a lot of torque. (Many of the Smilodons at the LaBrea Tar Pits had broken sabers… Homotherium’s blades were ever thinner) It would have backed off and hit again and again as its victim weakened from loss of blood. As I said in the post, it would not have been easy to watch on Animal Planet, or anywhere else.
Hyaenas tend (at least some clan members do) to latch on to prey with those “Pitbull plus” jaws and teeth they have and hold on while other clan members literally eat their victim to death as it goes into shock (perhaps even a harder thing to watch). I probably didn’t state it very well in the post, but Homotherium had to be more surgical in his attack than most other predators, his thin bladed canines demanded it.
January 3rd, 2006 at 4:40 pm
… rather like the picadors whose darts placed in the neck muscles weaken the bull before the matador goes in for the presumed kill.
it’s all so completely elemental.
thanks ogeorge for the details.
…
May 9th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
I just wanted to say I am a big fan of your work and style and I think your Homotherium piece is fantastic. I have seen allot of your work on the walls in the Quaternary Sciences Lab at Northern Arizona University. I would love to see a piece done of the Pliocene cats one day. Keep up the excellent work!
JP H.
November 25th, 2006 at 9:50 am
Enjoyed looking around your site.
It’s good to find that their are still people out there that can still draw - there arn’t many of us left!
November 26th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
I love your drawing and descriptions of the Homotherium serum.I came to your page in search of identifing a tooth that I have on an Native Indian necklace. It is very fine, flat, 3 1/2 to 4 ” and a very soft peach color. Attached only to a silver bale with no other adornment. I have found no other tooth in images like it. But your description fits. It is very pointed and sharp just at the tip, not double serrated, but not as curved as the larger saber toothed cats. An almost ivory polish is evident.Longitudenal
cracks are very fine. It is a very powerful totem if you believe in that. No one seems to recognize it’s source. I have not sent a picture since it is in safety storage with my collection of Native American jewelery. But if interested I would like to show it and consult with anyone who might identify it.
Bless you and your pal, I have also pets, Persians that though adopted have been born with abnormalities, and it is a blessing to care for the sick and infirmed.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Event though Homotherium Serum’s range included Orygun, I have yet to encounter one in Portland or the suburbs.
I can hope… it would sure shut up the neighbor’s dog.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:17 am
i love the saber tooth!!!!!!!! i thought the fangs/teeth were longer though………
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