Scientists from North Carolina State University (USA) believe that saber-toothed cats can both purr and growl. Results of the study published in the Journal of Morphology.
It is not known what kind of vocalization the saber-toothed tiger uses. He could growl or purr. To find the answer to the question, the structure of the throat of modern felines is responsible for this.
Modern felines are divided into two groups: “big cats”, which includes roaring lions, tigers, and jaguars, and “small cats”, which include purring animals: lynxes, cougars, ocelots, and domestic cats.
According to scientists, sabers are somewhere between these two groups. This is important because the discussion of what kind of sound a saber-toothed tiger might make is based on an analysis of the anatomy of the bones found in the throat. Their size, shape, and number differ between modern growling and purring cats.
Although vocalization is determined by the soft tissues of the larynx and throat, roaring and purring cats vary in size and number of hyoid bones responsible for anchoring these tissues. Humans have only one hyoid bone, while purring cats have nine and roaring cats have seven.
The researchers examined the hyoid bones of four species of growling cats: lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars, and five species of purring cats: cougars, cheetahs, caracals, servals, and ocelots. They compared them to the 105 hyoid bones of the saber-toothed tiger Smilodon fatalis.
“Since saber-toothed tigers only have seven bones in their hyoid bones, we hypothesized that they growled. But when we examined the anatomy of modern cats, we realized that bones were not responsible for vocalization. Saber-toothed cats lack the extra bones that purring cats have, but are similar in shape and size.”
According to the researchers, the key bones — the thyroid and basioid — are shaped like those of purring cats. This may indicate that the sabertooths are roughing up rather than wheezing.
“If the vocalization was about the number of bones in the hyoid structure, the saber teeth snarled. If it’s in uniform, they purred. They can even have completely different vocalizations, ”the authors concluded.
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