An artist's impression of a saber-toothed cat in the genus Smilodon. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
LiveScience has a story about some fossil discoveries in South Africa. Two new species of saber-toothed cats, Dinofelis werdelini and Lokotunjailurus chimsamyae, have been discovered near the town of Langebaanweg on the west coast of South Africa. These animals lived about 5.2 million years ago. While excavating the fossil bones, two known species were also found, Adeilosmilus kabir and Yoshi obscura. All four species belong to the extinct group Machairodontinae, which means "dagger-tooth". See the description of the find in a paper in the journal iScience.
In the study, the researchers compared the bones of the newly uncovered species and known saber-toothed cats to create a new family tree for the group. The four species from Langebaanweg were not closely related to one another and likely occupied very different ecological niches despite living in the same area at around the same time.
For example, L. chinsamyae and A. kabir were larger and more adapted to running at high speeds, which would make them well-suited to open grassland environments. But D. werdelini and Y. obscura were smaller and more agile, which would have made them more suited to covered environments, such as forests, the researchers said.
