Extinct Saber-toothed Cat (Smilodon fatalis) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Clues to fossil mammals' diets come from not only teeth, but also
skull shape, amount of space indicated by bones for a stomach and guts, from fossil dung and gut
contents, from lab analysis of oxygen isotopes in bone and teeth, and by looking at diets of
similar modern animals.

• Size of Smilodon teeth and robustness of skeleton indicates prey would have included large mammals such as bison, giant ground sloths, possibly young mammoths and mastodonts, horses, camels
• Oxygen isotopes preserved in tooth enamel show that S. gracilis in Florida ate browsing animals such as large pig-like Platygonus and large-headed llamas, Hemiauchenia. (Feranec 2002)
  
• Smilodonprobably avoided eating bone or contacting it with its teeth
• Microscopic study of tooth wear finds few grooves and pits in teeth indicating a diet of flesh (Annyonge 1996) (Van Valkenburgh et al 1990)
• Smilodon did not break its knife-like canines any more than it broke its other teeth
• Probably didn't use canines to help restrain prey, in contrast to modern lions (Van Valkenburgh and Hertel 1993)

Annyonge (1996)
Feranec (2002)
Valkenburgh et al (1990)