Homotherium and Megantereon
Two sabre-toothed cats spread across three continents and hunt alongside early humans.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1.7 million years
- Known to
- ± 200 thousand years
- Era
- Early Pleistocene, Quaternary
Homotherium, the scimitar cat, has shorter, coarsely serrated canines and long forelimbs suited to pursuit in open country, and its range covers Africa, Eurasia and North America. Megantereon is smaller and more powerfully built, an ambush predator. Both overlap in time and place with early Homo, and Megantereon in particular is a plausible source of the carcasses that early hominins scavenged — a big cat that kills more meat than it can strip leaves an opportunity for anything with a sharp stone.