Smilodon populator Lund 1842
Creators: name: Manzuetti, Aldo
name: Perea, Daniel
name: Jones, Washington
name: Ubilla, Martın
name: Rinderknecht, Andres
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Felidae
Smilodon
Smilodon populator

description: Smilodon populator Lund, 1842
Referred material. MNHN-P 957, almost complete skull (Fig. 2).
Geographic and stratigraphic location. Limetas Creek (Department of Colonia, Uruguay), Dolores Formation, late Pleistocene–early Holocene.
Comparative description. Dorsal view: elongated and rather narrow skull, according to the disposition of the zygomatic arches. There is an opening in the frontonasal region of the skull. Lateral view: the nasals are high and the large lambdoid crest forms a marked angle where it meets the mastoid process as evidenced in Smilodon populator and differing from S. fatalis (Kurten & Werdelin 1990). Ventral view: enlarged mastoid process; anteroposteriorly elongated and transversely compressed auditory bullae.
a Mean body mass 407.6. Body mass equations from Van Valkenburgh (1990).
Abbreviations: CBL, condylobasal length; OOL, orbito-occipital length.
a According to equations of Prevosti & Vizcaıno (2006).
b According to equations of Prevosti & Martin (2013).
The tooth rows are very well preserved but lacking M1; canines are cracked and broken. The incisors are slightly recurved posteriorly, the PM3 is tricuspidate and slightly oblique with respect to the corresponding PM4. The PM4 is secodont and has the typical configuration of the genus (Berta 1987), the secondary ectoparastyle is anterior to the parastyle, and the protocone is reduced. Judging from the degree of wear of the teeth, specially PM4, and the level of fusion of the cranial sutures, the specimen MNHN-P 957 is from an adult individual.
Remarks. The body mass estimations, using equations for extant felids based on measurements of the skull, provide an average value above 400 kg (Table 1). Based on that average body mass, the typical prey size must have greatly exceeded 1 t, and the maximum prey size was around 3 t (Table 2). Bivariate analysis based on measurements of the skull and dentition (Figs 3 and 4) shows significant differences between Smilodon gracilis and S. fatalis, and in some ways with S. populator too. In terms of absolute size, the specimen MNHN-P 957 is larger than S. gracilis (Berta 1987, 1995), S. fatalis (Merriam & Stock 1932, Kurten & Werdelin 1990) and even the sample of specimens of S. populator used here (Figs 3 and 4A) (Mendez-Alzola 1941, Churcher 1967, Kurten & Werdelin 1990). The only exception is the biplot of the PM4, which falls within the size variability of the largest S. fatalis and S. populator (Fig. 4B).
Measurements (in mm). Skull measurements: TL, 392; CBL, 379; OOL, 242; ZW, 240; RW, 119; IOW, 112; PCW, 100; GBM, 152; GBC, 83; FMB, 35; FMH, 32. Dental measurements (right side): TRL I-PM4, 168; Diast, 22; CAP, 52; CML, 24; PM3AP, 19; PM3ML, 12; PM4AP, 44; PM4ML, 18.
description: Published as part of Manzuetti, Aldo, Perea, Daniel, Jones, Washington, Ubilla, Martın & Rinderknecht, Andres, 2020, An extremely large saber-tooth cat skull from Uruguay (late Pleistocene - early Holocene, Dolores Formation): body size and paleobiological implications, pp. 1-8 in Alcheringa: an Australian Journal of Paleontology 44 on pages 3-4, DOI: 10.1080/03115518.2019.1701080, http://zenodo.org/record/3712657