Tag Archives: Smilodon

Dire times for bone crushing dogs

Posted on December 11, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Dogs. (Hu)man’s best friend. For around 15,000 years, these furry, sensitive canines have been our close companions. All dogs alive today descended from a wolf ancestor into a massive array of variations today; from the laughable but slightly cute Chihuahua, to the unbelievable … Continue reading →

Posted in Bone Crushing Dog | Tagged American Hyena, Blanco Formation, Bone crushing dog, Borophaginae, Borophangus diversidens, Canidae, chihuahua, Dire Wolf, Dog, Edward Dinker Cope, Epicyon, Great dane, Hyena, Smilodon, Strobodon stirtoni | 2 Comments

The burrowers

Posted on November 21, 2014 by twilightbeasts

To witness the full majestic sight of the Giant Ground Sloth in all it’s glory, it is best to visit at twilight. For around half an hour after the museum doors open, and then again for around half an hour just before … Continue reading →

Posted in Giant Ground Sloth | Tagged Georges Cuvier, Giant Ground Sloth, London, Mammoth, Megatherium americanum, Natural History Museum, Pilosa, Sloth, Smilodon | 11 Comments

Darwin’s 18 pence

Posted on November 13, 2014 by twilightbeasts

South American Pleistocene beasts were super weird. They owe their peculiar evolution to events that happened deep within the very bowels of the planet, hundreds of millions of years ago. Almost all the land that we know today was squashed together … Continue reading →

Posted in Toxodon | Tagged Charles Darwin, Glossotherium, Glyptodon, Gondwana, Great American Interchange, Macrauchenia, Mastodon, Mylodon, Notoungulata, Pangaea, Richard Owen, Rodenta, Smilodon, Toxodon | 9 Comments

The sabretooth salmon

Posted on November 5, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Almost everyone has heard about sabretooth cats, mostly thanks to the incredibly fun Ice Age movie series with the cool cat, Diego. But it wasn’t the only sabre toothed beastie of the Pleistocene. There was of course, the more unfamiliar … Continue reading →

Posted in Sabre tooth salmon | Tagged Homotherium, Oncorhynchus rastrosus, Sabre tooth salmon, Salmon, Smilodon, Smilodonichthys rastrosus | 1 Comment

Ghosts of the desert

Posted on August 26, 2014 by twilightbeasts

The sun sets over the plains of Vizcaíno Desert, Baja California península, Mexico; a vast desert watered by fog from the Pacific Ocean. A group of peninsular pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana peninsularis) stretch and lay about in the cool afternoon, … Continue reading →

Posted in Pronghorn | Tagged American cheetahs, Antilocapra americana, Antilocapra americana peninsularis, Baja California peninsula, Bighorn sheep, Bison, camel, Canis dirus, Canis lepophagus, Chasmaporthetes ossifragus, Comondú archaeological complex, Cougar, Coyote, Dire Wolf, Grey wolf, Homotherium, Horse, Megantereon, Miracinonyx sp., Mule deer, Muskoxen, Odocoileus hemionus, Ovis canadensis, Peccary, Pronghorn Antelope, Protocyon, Short-faced Bear, Sierra de San Francisco, Smilodon, Tapir, Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, Vizcaino Desert | 8 Comments

The last of its kind

Posted on June 12, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Twilight beasts come in all shapes and sizes, with some being more familiar, like the sabretooth cat, Smilodon, and others less so, like the strange mini-sheep, Myotragus. Although we have some fossils, there are still a lot of awesome things … Continue reading →

Posted in Chalicothere | Tagged Ancylotherium hennigi, Chalicothere, Eocene, Moropus, Myotragus balearicus, Perissodactyla, Smilodon | 6 Comments

Impressions of the Pleistocene

Posted on May 28, 2014 by twilightbeasts

In 1915, prominent American palaeontologist, Henry Fairfield Osborn, published Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life, and Art. Drawing from his three-week-tour of archaeological sites across Paleolithic Europe, Osborn’s book integrated archaeology, geology and prehistory. Painstaking in its … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific Art | Tagged American Museum of Natural History, Charles Knight, Cro-magnon, Font-de-Gaume, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Mammoth, Neanderthal, Smilodon, Stephen Jay Gould, Woolly Mammoth | 7 Comments

The one with the sabretooth

Posted on May 13, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Smilodon is the genus of extinct sabretooth that everyone knows. Stocky, hugely muscled, with canines that protrude far below the jaw, it is the archetypal Pleistocene predator. It was a member of the machairodontinae, an extinct subfamily of the Felidae … Continue reading →

Posted in Sabre tooth Cat | Tagged American lion, Blaire Van Valkenburgh, Canis dirus, Dire Wolf, Friends, Homotherium latidens, Panthera leo atrox, Rancho la Brea, Ross Geller, Sabre tooth cat, Smilodon, Smilodon fatalis, Smilodon gracilis, Smilodon populator, Trowelblazer | 36 Comments

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within