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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsMachairodus lahayishupup was a giant saber-toothed cat that lived in North America roughly 5 to 9 million years ago. Researchers estimate that adults averaged about 600 pounds, with some possibly reaching 900 pounds, and infer that the cat likely hunted large herbivores, including bison-sized prey. Fossils do not show that it tracked a particular animal or document a kill: those behaviors are inferred from its estimated size and the animals living in the region.
What was Machairodus lahayishupup?
It was a previously unrecognized species of Machairodus, a saber-toothed cat from North America. It is not Smilodon, the much better-known saber-toothed cat associated with the Ice Age. The fossils attributed to M. lahayishupup date to roughly 5–9 million years ago, during the Miocene.
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The species name means “ancient wild cat” in Old Cayuse. The Oregon fossil was excavated on traditional Cayuse lands, and the researchers collaborated with the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute in naming the animal, according to the University of Oregon’s account of the discovery.
How large was this saber-toothed cat?
Its body size is reconstructed from fossil bones rather than measured directly. Ohio State News and the University of Oregon reported an estimated average mass of around 600 pounds, with possible individuals reaching about 900 pounds.
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The clearest physical evidence is the upper-arm bone, or humerus. The largest measured specimen was more than 18 inches long and 1.7 inches across, according to Ohio State News (2021). For comparison, the report gives an average length of about 13 inches for the humerus of a modern adult male lion. Those bone dimensions are measurements; the cat’s body weights are estimates.
What did it eat, and did it track bison-sized prey?
Researchers infer that the cat hunted large herbivores. Ohio State News reported likely prey masses of 1,000–2,000 pounds and said the researchers estimated that the cat might have killed prey weighing as much as 6,000 pounds. These are prey-size estimates, not weights of animals found at a documented kill site.
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Study co-author Jonathan Calede summarized the interpretation this way: “We believe these were animals that were routinely taking down bison-sized animals.” That is an inference from the cat’s reconstructed size and the regional fauna, not direct evidence of a hunt. The available accounts do not document tracking behavior, a trackway, or a specific bison-sized victim. “Hunted bison-sized prey” is therefore better supported than saying the fossils prove it “tracked” such prey.
How did scientists identify a new species from museum fossils?
John Orcutt began the project after encountering a large cat upper-arm bone in the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History. He and Calede then found similar, previously uncategorized fossils in museum collections in Idaho, California, and Texas. The researchers reported seven M. lahayishupup humeri available for analysis.
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They compared the shape of the humerus’s distal end—the elbow end—in living cats and fossil feliforms. By digitizing specimens and recording anatomical landmarks, they quantified differences in shape, then used bone measurements to reconstruct body mass and estimate prey size. The study’s supplementary-data record describes this geometric morphometric approach and notes that isolated distal humeri can help distinguish feliform groups, including genera and species.
One Idaho specimen included lower-jaw teeth, which helped support its placement in Machairodus. It did not preserve the animal’s characteristic saber-shaped canines. The identification thus relied on comparing multiple fossils and anatomical features, not on finding a complete skull.
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What remains uncertain about its evolutionary history?
The study established a species identification, but it did not settle how this cat fits into the full family tree of saber-toothed cats. The supplementary-data record says future phylogenetic analyses are needed to reconstruct the evolutionary history of North American Machairodontinae. Orcutt told Ohio State News that relationships among early saber-toothed cats remain “a little fuzzy,” in part because the number of species recognized has changed as more fossils are studied.
The discovery also illustrates why museum collections matter: fossils that have sat unidentified can become important when researchers develop new ways to compare their anatomy. As Edward Davis, paleontological collections manager at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, put it, “An isolated specimen might remain in a museum cabinet for decades, and then it suddenly becomes pivotal in our understanding of mammalian evolution.”
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Sources
- Ohio State News, “Newly identified saber-toothed cat is one of largest in history” (May 3, 2021)
- Dryad supplementary dataset record for the 2021 study (published February 3, 2022)
- University of Oregon, “UO graduates identify a new species of saber-toothed giant” (May 11, 2021)
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