Natural History
Successful Dig Reveals an Almost Complete Skull of a Saber-toothed Cat – A third individual saber-toothed cat was discovered in Schöningen
Led by scientists of the Senckenberg Research Institute and the University of Tübingen, the excavation team found the remains of a saber-toothed cat at the archeological site in Schöningen.
In-situ position of a skull fragment from the third Homotherium, which was discovered on 25 May 2015 at the archeological dig in Schöningen. © Univ. Tübingen / Senckenberg
Led by scientists of the Senckenberg Research Institute and the University of Tübingen, the excavation team found the remains of a saber-toothed cat at the archeological site in Schöningen.
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2017/04/successful-dig-reveals-an-almost-complete-skull-of-a-saber-toothed-cat-a-third-individual-saber-toothed-cat-was-discovered-in-schoningen/114550An examination of the skull fragments at the Dutch University of Leiden revealed the animal to be a representative of the European saber-toothed cat, Homotherium latidens. The recent discovery constitutes the third example of this large predatory cat from Schöningen.
Long claws, razor-sharp, curved canine teeth and the size of a fully grown lion: the saber-toothed cat (Homotherium latidens) was a competitor as well as a dangerous predator that even posed a risk to the humans of its time. “In the course of our excavation in May 2015, we came across conspicuous bone fragments,” explains Dr. Jordi Serangeli, a scientist at the University of Tübingen and the excavation leader at the approximately 300,000-year-old archeological site, and he continues, “In total, there are three individuals of Homotherium present in these relatively young sediment layers.
