An apparent family of sabre-toothed cats with an unusual genetic quirk is providing new hints about how the predators lived tens of thousands of years ago. These are the lower left jaw bones from the two young sabre-toothed cats that were buried together. Both had an extra tooth that isn't usually present in sabre-toothed cats, suggesting they were genetically related. Though commonly referred to as the sabre-toothed tiger, Smilodon is not actually closely related to modern-day big cats like tigers and lions. However, she said the ideas about how sabre-toothed cats grew will be interesting to test in future studies.

Source: CBC News January 17, 2021 09:00 UTC