IN THE LAST DAYS OF SABRE-TOOTH CAT

Sabre-tooth cat skull

Sabre-tooth cats, one of the most fearsome cats of all time, rule the land of the North America in the ice age. They are the top predator of the land of North America in the Ice Age. Huge preys like the Bison, horses are the main prey of the Sabre-Tooth Cat. The normal temperature of the North America never exceeded more than 40 degree in the complete Ice age era. In that time most probably the land of North America is not like this. Most probably the places are not dry and there exist huge forests with big trees and grasslands. This forest and the grasslands create huge covers for the Sabre-Tooth Cats to hunt. If we see the bone structure of the Sabre-Tooth Cat, we find that, the sabre-tooth cats are much heavier than other big cats of today. This indicates they are much slower than today’s cat. So they must be much more dependent on their sneak attack. So the covers from the grasslands and the forests with huge trees are very much in favour of them – That makes the Sabre-tooth cat the top predator of the entire North America in the ice age.

Now we are entering 10,000 years ago from today. The time is changing. It is the End of the Ice age era. The climate is changing rapidly. The ice is melting rapidly. The forestland with huge trees and grasslands become the place of much drier open field with short grasses. That is making the most of the herbivorous megafauna migrate. But surprisingly one megafauna is looking like very much adoptable with this environmental change – It is the Bison. And actually in this new environmental condition the bison are more comfortable and their population increases in those open field.

Imaginary body of the Sabre-tooth cat

After ruling the North America, now suddenly the Sabre-tooth is losing its grip in the wild. In fact they are decreasing rapidly. In the time of the ice age the maximum temperature never crossed 40 degree, but now the temperature is much higher, the lands become drier; the big land forests and the grasslands are gone. These cause a huge problem to the sabre-tooth cat to hunt. We know the sabre-tooth cats hunting completely depends on the fact that how much they are capable of being camouflaged. Since all the big tree forests and grasslands are now gone and they are replaced by the open fields, Sabre-tooth cats are losing their chance of being unseen. We can simply say the climate is betraying the Sabre-tooth cats in these days. Also the numbers of the Bison population increasing now – This gives the bison herds a lot of more pairs of eyes to watch their backs. So they can see the cat from a long distance and can run away. Sabre-tooth cat figure is not built to chase down a prey and hunt it down, as they are much slower than modern world cheetah, lions, tigers etc.

This new world makes the Sabre-tooth cats food less. They started to decrease from the world only because of the food. In their last days, the sabre-tooth cats lived a life where they can see their prey standing not too far from them but still out of their reach.

The last sabre-tooth cat – a female cat, most probably has two kids. She tried to hunt bison for many times but failed every time. Then she abandoned its kids and travelled long for food. It finally reaches the La Brea Tar Pit and sees some dead or trapped animals. She entered the tar pit and got trapped in the tar and died there.

The Last Sabre-Tooth Cat died like this and The Sabre-Tooth Cat extinct from the world.

DOES THE DIRE WOLF CARE FOR EACH OTHER IN THE PACK?

From the remaining of the dire wolf what we found in the La Brea Tar Pit we found some of the broken dire wolf bones. These injuries most probably happened when these animals were out for hunting. In one case the researcher found that the upper hand arm bone of the dire wolf is broken, and this injury may makes that dire wolf a three legged animal. In another case the scientist found that one eye of the dire wolf was completely smashed. That dire wolf may be left one eyed after that injury. Now in the first case, from the study of the remaining it is found that that species lived at least 5 to 6 months more after that injury. In the second case, we found that that dire wolf lived several years after that injury. But here a huge question arises – in the both cases, the dire wolf surely lost their capability of hunting a large prey. So they cannot hunt by their own. Then how those dire wolves lived so long time after that injury? The probability of getting dead animal flesh every time is very much low.  This makes many scientists to believe that may be in the pack, the dire wolf care for each other,

Again in many dire wolves bone remaining we found the bite marks of none but the other dire wolves. So, it’s confirm that they dire wolf fight with each other.

That is why some scientists also thing that the dire wolf hunt in packs but they do not care for each other. And they also believe that in the broken dire wolf remains, the injuries are not that fatal that they cannot hunt by themselves. And more over the fighting between the dire wolves proves that the dire wolf do not care for each other. They just hunt in packs but no caring for each other, just like their gray wolf cousin.

Now I’m going to say what I believe in this case and explain why I believe this.

According to my study and imagination, I believe the dire wolves do care for each other in the pack.  I’ve seen that broken bones in a documentary called ‘Prehistoric Predator- episode 1-Dire Wolf’ in Net Geo Wild. I believe – those injuries are not that fatal that they cannot hunt. But as we know, the world was not same as of today. And the prey species of the dire wolves are normally the larger prey. And with those injuries those dire wolves just cannot hunt the larger prey alone. Now, because of their injury, they cannot hunt with the packs. One weak wolf in the time of hunting gave the prey a huge advantage to save himself.

Now, if we believe the fact that the dire wolf pack does not care for each other, then the injured dire wolf is not needed in the pack. They became a single wolf, and have to hunt alone. With that injury they cannot hunt larger prey. Now we concentrate to the smaller preys and the carcass what they can get. Every prey has its own way to save itself. Most of the smaller preys are either very much fast runner or a perfect Camouflage. So for a one eyed dire wolf or a three legged dire wolf it looks almost impossible to hunt those animals. And on the case of carcass, here, they can be able to find that, but you see, 10000 years ago the North America is a nightmare for everybody, there are many big deadly predators like sabre-tooth cat, short-faced bear and many more. So, finding the carcass for several years regularly and feed that completely without any other predator’s attention is impossible. More over most probably the North American lands are just like today’s African lands where a predator killed another to secure their foods and the future of their own siblings. So other predators will kill that single wolf at the first sight. This proves that the injured dire wolf continued with the pack and since the lived a long live after the injury that confirms the other wolves in their packs share their food with the injured ones.

Remaining of dire wolves found in the La Brea Tar Pit

For the bite marks of the dire wolves in the other dire wolves bone may be because of this – u see, in the La Brea Tar Pit we found 3500 individual dire wolf remaining –  Much larger than other any other predator. This leads us to the fact that the dire wolves dominated that area. Now, it’s not possible that there is only one pack that rules that area. Because if that happened then there is no other predator remains that place. The huge dire wolf pack finished all other predators. But that does not happened. So there are many packs controlling the North America. Very much likely they often involved in brutal fights between themselves. Again in the packs, there may be sometimes fights occurs to dominate the pack. These are may be the cause of the injuries of the dire wolves happened by other dire wolves.

New Tyrannosaur named 'Pinocchio rex'

Pinocchio was smaller than T. rex but its nose was a third longer - perhaps for a different hunting strategy

A new type of Tyrannosaur with a very long nose has been nicknamed "Pinocchio rex".

The ferocious carnivore, nine metres long with a distinctive horny snout, was a cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Its skeleton was dug up in a Chinese construction site and identified by scientists at Edinburgh University, UK.

The 66-million-year-old predator, officially named Qianzhousaurus sinensis.

"Pinocchio" looked very different to other tyrannosaurs.

"It had the familiar toothy grin of T. rex, but its snout was long and slender, with a row of horns on top," said Edinburgh's Dr Steve Brusatte.

"It might have looked a little comical, but it would have been as deadly as any other tyrannosaur, and maybe even a little faster and stealthier.

"We thought it needed a nickname, and the long snout made us think of Pinocchio's long nose."

Researchers now think several different tyrannosaurs lived and hunted alongside each other in Asia during the late Cretaceous Period, the last days of the dinosaurs.

The enormous Tarbosaurus (up to 13m) had deep and powerful jaws likeT. rex - strong enough to crush the bones of giant herbivores.

The thinner teeth and lighter skeleton of Qianzhousaurus suggest it hunted smaller creatures, such as lizards and feathered dinosaurs. But at nine metres tall and weighing almost a tonne, it was still a gigantic carnivore.

"You wouldn't want to run into either of these guys," said Dr Brusatte.

'Weird features'

Pinocchio's snout was 35% longer than other dinosaurs of its size. So, why the long face?

"The truth is we don't know yet. But it must've been doing something different," Dr Brusatte told BBC News.

"The iconic picture of a tyrannosaur is T. Rex, the biggest, baddest dinosaur of all.

"But this new species was lighter, less muscular. It breaks the mould. Perhaps it had a faster bite and hunted in a different way."

Prof Junchang Lu and Dr Steve Brusatte at the discovery site

The discovery of "Pinocchio" settles an argument over a series of strange new fossil finds.

In recent years, two tyrannosaurs with unusually prominent proboscises were dug up in Mongolia, and named Alioramus.

The horny-snouted predators appeared to come from an entirely new branch of the tyrannosaur family.

"The trouble was, they were both juveniles. So it was possible their long snouts were just a weird transient feature that grows out in adults," said Dr Brusatte, an expert in tyrannosaur evolution.

But this new Qianzhousaurus specimen is an almost fully mature adult. It was found largely intact and remarkably well preserved by road construction workers near Ganzhou in southern China.

"It's twice the size of the juveniles, and yet it still shows the same features - including the distinctive horns," said Dr Brusatte.

"This is the slam dunk we needed: the long-snouted tyrannosaurs were real."

Palaeontologists are now confident that Qianzhousaurus and Alioramusare part of a new subgroup of tyrannosaurs with elongated skulls.

Their discovery from Mongolia to southern China suggests these "second tier" carnivores were widely distributed, according to Prof Junchang Lu of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, a co-author on the paper.

"Although we are only starting to learn about them, the long-snouted tyrannosaurs were apparently one of the main groups of predatory dinosaurs in Asia," he said.

With these "weird" creatures now accepted as being part of a whole family, more and more of their long-snouted relatives are expected to be unearthed.

As for the riddle of Pinocchio's nose, the scientists hope to solve it via biomechanical studies of its jaw - which may hint at its feeding habits.

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