Male sabertooths were pussycats compared to macho lions

 

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Despite their fearsome fangs, male sabertoothed cats may have been less aggressive than many of their feline cousins, says a new study of male-female size differences in extinct big cats.

NESCent postdoc Julie Meachen-Samuels and colleague Wendy Binder of Loyola Marymount University report that while male American lions were considerably larger than females, male and female sabertoothed cats were indistinguishable in size. The findings suggest that sabertooths may have been less aggressive than their fellow felines, the researchers say.
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