[D] Smilodon leavis [ncG] [Pr]
Describer
Plieninger, 1846 / Lund, 1842
Classification
Not considered dinosaur
Info
Genus
Smilodon\\\\\\\'s upper canine roots extend well up into a heavy skull, terminating above the orbits, they are flattened blades with serrated margins, particularly on the back side.The machairodont\\\\\\\'s forequarters are massive compared to a modern lion or tiger.
The bones are larger and more robust than seen in the large La Brean Lion. In short, this felid is built like a tank. Most cats use the claws to hold onto pray or to drag it down. The average kitty can handle up to 5 times it\\\\\\\'s own weight that way Tigers have little difficulty pulling down 2,000 pound gaur bulls using their claw equipped fore limbs.
It seems likely that cats like Smilodon and Eusmilus dragged down and held their prey with their front claws, positioning them for precise strikes into soft tissue, vein, and artery ( neck and throat ).In Smilodon, the head could be brought well back on the neck and the lower jaw dropped down against the chest clearing the points of the canines.
The mastoids were awesome.The machairodont could survive without its canines, however. Many skulls evidence broken teeth with polished surfaces.
\\\\\\\"Plateosaurus\\\\\\\" plieningeri (Fraas, 1896), priviously Zanclodon plieningeri, (Fraas, 1896), originally Smilodon leavis (Plieninger, 1846), the latter subsequently made the type species of the genus Zanclodon (Plieninger, 1846), founded on an incomplete left maxilla, SMNS 6045, from the Lettenkohle (Lower Lettenkeuper, Middle Triassic) of Gaildorf, near Schwäbisch Hall. Würtemberg, Germany.
This specimen is an archosaurian taxon of uncertain affinities, having tapering, recurved and unserrated teeth, that do not resemble the teeth of any prosauropod (Galton, 2001) besides that the remains are to old to be dinosaurian as prosauropods are only known from remains dating from the Late Triassic. Over time other metraial have been refered to Zanclodon laevis, including a partial skeleton collected by Albert Reiniger, from the Middle Keuper, Knollenmergel or Trossingen Formation (Late Triassic) od Degerloch in Stuttgart (this and other specimen subsequently referred by Plieninger, 1857 to Beledon plieningeri , a species now known to be phytosaurian)