A new saber‐tooth morphotype: The cookie‐cutter cat

Until recently, three cat‐like carnivore morphotypes based on canine features and postcranial skeletal proportions were known. Xenosmilus hodsonae (Early Pleistocene of Florida) a new saber‐tooth genus and species, combining bear‐like postcrania with comparatively short, coarsely serrated upper canines, a semicircle of enlarged serrated incisors and plantigrade hind feet was recently described. In this cat incisors and canines together removed a semicircular bolus of flesh; this bite rather than stabbing constituted the killing system. These short‐legged animals are now termed cookie‐cutter cats, in contrast with the previously well‐known scimitar‐tooth, dirk‐tooth and conical‐tooth forms. Other cranial features correlating only with the cookie‐cutter killing system include an overhanging occiput and an anteroposteriorly elongated temporal fossa for a relatively larger M. temporalis with a more horizontal line of action than in other saber‐tooths. Together with a reoriented M. masseter, X. hodsonae could exert more consistent pressures at all gapes than other saber‐tooths with maximized initial closing pressures. X. hodsonae must have been an ambush predator, and occurring in a tall grass savannah, has been restored with stripes. Two skeletons originally found in a possible limestone cave “den” were associated with many peccary skeletons and a few gomphotherine mastodont bones as preferred prey.