November 2007
Giant hyenas, giraffes and sabretooth cats roamed around Southern Spain 1.8 MY ago. A great collection of fossils have been unearthed at Fonelas in Granada.
BBC article. Scroll down the BBC page – what’s wrong with the picture of the sabretooth?
Highlight from here to the bottom of the post to read the answer: The upper canines were behind the lower canines – just like in a modern cat. This doesn’t look anywhere near as scary, so most modern pictures of sabretooths – and indeed, prehistoric images – have the big upper teeth at the front.
Ah, didn’t spot that; thought maybe it was because I think this was meant to be an image of Smilodon fatalis, or maybe californicus, not a European species. Maybe it’s just the size of the image misleading me, but it looks like this guy has conical canines, while felid sabretooths had flat upper canines, as far as I know