This illustration depicts how the region of Cerro de los Batallones in central Spain likely looked nine million years ago when saber-toothed cats and bear dogs shared space and prey during the late Miocene period. (Mauricio Antón)
Posted on 11/10/2012 5:48:07 AM PST by SunkenCiv
New research has uncovered how saber-toothed cats and bear dogs managed to cohabitate peacefully more than nine million years ago.
A team of paleontologists from the University of Michigan and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Spain took tooth enamel samples from two species of sabre-toothed cats and one species of bear dog that had been unearthed at sites near Madrid.
By analyzing the enamel and determining what the animals ate, the scientists were able to understand how they lived together in a woodland region...
By analyzing what they ate, researchers surmised the leopard-sized cats and the bear dogs hunted the same prey: wild boar and horses.
However, the cats would have used tree cover to avoid encountering other bigger animals while the dogs hunted in a more open area that rarely overlapped with the cats' territory. The larger bear dogs would have no competition from the cats hunting for those same animals.
During that time, the late Miocene Period, the predators lived in a forested area that had spots of grassland.
The excavated sites in Spain, at Cerro de los Batallones, had an abundance of bones from meat-eating mammals, a situation which offers "a unique window to understand life in the past," Domingo says.
Researchers took the animals' teeth and using a dentist's drill, removed specimens from 27 saber-toothed cats and bear dogs.
Those specimens were run through a stable carbon isotope analysis, which allowed scientists to measure the ratio of carbon 13 molecules to carbon 12.
Both carbon 12 and 13 are present in the carbon dioxide plants ingest during photosynthesis. When a plant is eaten, it leaves an isotopic signature on teeth and bones.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
This illustration depicts how the region of Cerro de los Batallones in central Spain likely looked nine million years ago when saber-toothed cats and bear dogs shared space and prey during the late Miocene period. (Mauricio Antón)
What does a bear dog look like?
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks Renfield. |
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks Renfield. |
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Smaller than the N. American Smilodon, the largest of the saber-toothed cats.
Yes, but the real question is could they get along with ManBearPig?
So, by looking at teeth, they can extrapolate how they behaved? I’m going to start brushing my teeth ten times a day. The stupid bears eat apples and so do I. Some day, some archeologist will look at our teeth and say, “Why, yes, man and bear lived together at that time.”
Our time will be known as The Yogi Bear Era.
Is that an actual photo or just an artists rendering?
Bear dog or weasel wolf? Looks more like a weasel to me.
I always thought they'd make a pretty cool pet :-)
Can you sic them on liberals?
Unfortunately, Madagascar being an island nation, if you'd send enough liberals there to become a viable food source, you'd be in danger of tipping the island.
I’m not seeing the downside here.
A la Guam? :-)
Some of the fossa may drown.
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