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Sexual dimorphism is widespread among carnivorans, and has been an important evolutionary factor in social ecology. However, its presence in sabertoothed felids remains contentious. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of extant  Panthera  and the sabertoothed felid  Smilodon fatalis .  S. fatalis  has been reported to show little or no sexual dimorphism but to have been intraspecifically variable in skull morphology. We found that large and small specimens of  S. fatalis  could be assigned to male and female sexes with similar degrees of confidence as  Panthera  based on craniomandibular shape.  P. uncia  is much less craniomandibularly variable and has low levels of sexual size-dimorphism. Shape variation in  S. fatalis  probably reflects sexual differences. Craniomandibular size-dimorphism is lower in  S. fatalis  than in  Panthera  except  P. uncia . Sexual dimorphism in felids is related to more than overall size, and  S. fatalis  and the four large  Panthera  species show marked and similar craniomandibular and dental morphometric sexual dimorphism, whereas morphometric dimorphism in  P. uncia  is less. Many morphometric-sexually dimorphic characters in  Panthera  and  Smilodon  are related to bite strength and presumably to killing ecology. This suggests that morphometric sexual dimorphism is an evolutionary adaptation to intraspecific resource partitioning, since large males with thicker upper canines and stronger bite forces would be able to hunt larger prey than females, which is corroborated by feeding ecology in  P. leo . Sexual dimorphism indicates that  S. fatalis  could have been social, but it is unlikely that it lived in fusion-fission units dominated by one or a few males, as in sub-Saharan populations of  P. leo . Instead,  S. fatalis  could have been solitary and polygynous, as most extant felids, or it may have lived in unisexual groups, as is common in  P. leo persica .

Variation in Craniomandibular Morphology and Sexual Dimorphism in Pantherines and the Sabercat Smilodon fatalis