Editing Smilodon (section)

== Distribution and habitat ==

[[File:Paleontological landscape painting, White Sands National Park, United States.jpg|left|thumb|alt=Painting of animals around a lake|Environment of what is now [[White Sands National Park]], with ''S. fatalis'' in the reeds in the right foreground]]
''Smilodon'' lived during the [[Pleistocene]] epoch (2.5 mya–10,000 years ago), and was perhaps the most recent of the saber-toothed cats.<ref name="Turner" /> ''S. fatalis'' lived in a variety of habitats, being able to inhabit open grassland and parkland,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=Matthew G. |last2=Easterla |first2=David A. |date=1 May 2023 |title=A complete sabertooth cat cranium from the Midcontinent of North America and its evolutionary and ecological context |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379123000938 |journal=[[Quaternary Science Reviews]] |language=en |volume=307 |pages=108045 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108045 |bibcode=2023QSRv..30708045H |access-date=27 April 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref> marginal woodland-grassland settings,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kohn |first1=Matthew J. |last2=McKay |first2=Moriah P. |last3=Knight |first3=James L. |date=1 August 2005 |title=Dining in the Pleistocene—Who's on the menu? |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/33/8/649/103783/Dining-in-the-PleistoceneWhos-on-the-menu |journal=[[Geology (journal)|Geology]] |language=en |volume=33 |issue=8 |pages=649–652 |doi=10.1130/G21476AR.1 |issn=1943-2682 |access-date=27 April 2024 |via=GeoScienceWorld}}</ref> and closed forests.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schellhorn |first1=Rico |last2=Sanmugaraja |first2=Mayuran |date=16 April 2014 |title=Habitat adaptations in the felid forearm |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12542-014-0230-8 |journal=[[PalZ]] |language=en |volume=89 |issue=2 |pages=261–269 |doi=10.1007/s12542-014-0230-8 |issn=0031-0220 |access-date=27 April 2024 |via=Springer}}</ref> Fossils of the genus have been found throughout the Americas.<ref name="Status" /> The northernmost remains of the genus are ''S. fatalis'' fossils from [[Alberta, Canada]],<ref name="Canada">{{cite journal |last1=Reynolds |first1=A. R. |last2=Seymour |first2=K. L. |last3=Evans |first3=D. C. |title=Late Pleistocene records of felids from Medicine Hat, Alberta, including the first Canadian record of the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis |journal=Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences |date=2019 |volume=56 |issue=10 |pages=1052–1060 |doi=10.1139/cjes-2018-0272|bibcode=2019CaJES..56.1052R |hdl=1807/96725 |s2cid=134586651 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> with the southernmost remains of ''S. populator'' being known from the far south of [[Patagonia]], near the [[Strait of Magellan]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Villavicencio |first1=Natalia A. |last2=Lindsey |first2=Emily L. |last3=Martin |first3=Fabiana M. |last4=Borrero |first4=Luis A. |last5=Moreno |first5=Patricio I. |last6=Marshall |first6=Charles R. |last7=Barnosky |first7=Anthony D. |date=February 2016 |title=Combination of humans, climate, and vegetation change triggered Late Quaternary megafauna extinction in the Última Esperanza region, southern Patagonia, Chile |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.01606 |journal=Ecography |language=en |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=125–140 |doi=10.1111/ecog.01606 |bibcode=2016Ecogr..39..125V |issn=0906-7590}}</ref> The habitat of North America varied from subtropical forests and savannah in the south, to treeless [[mammoth steppes]] in the north. The mosaic vegetation of woods, shrubs, and grasses in southwestern North America supported large herbivores such as horses, bison, [[Antilocapridae|antelope]], [[deer]], camels, [[mammoth]]s, [[mastodon]]s, and [[ground sloth]]s. North America also supported other saber-toothed cats, such as ''Homotherium'' and ''Xenosmilus'', as well as other large carnivores including dire wolves, [[Arctodus|short-faced bear]] (''Arctodus simus'') and the American lion.{{Sfn|Antón|2013|pp=65–76}}{{Sfn|Antón|2013|pp=30–33}}<ref name=desantis2015>{{cite journal|last1=DeSantis|first1=L.R.G.|last2=Schubert|first2=B.W.|last3=Schmitt-Linville|first3=E.|last4=Ungar|first4=P.|last5=Donohue|first5=S.|last6=Haupt|first6=R.J.|title=Dental microwear textures of carnivorans from the La Brea Tar Pits, California and potential extinction implications|publisher=Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County|journal=Science Series 42: Contributions in Science |issue=A special volume entitled La Brea and Beyond: the Paleontology of Asphalt–Preserved Biotas in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's excavations at Rancho La Brea|editor=John M. Harris|date=September 15, 2015|pages=37–52|url=http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/pdf/contrib_science/lacm-42.pdf|access-date=February 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220065852/http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/pdf/contrib_science/lacm-42.pdf|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Competition from such carnivores may have prevented North American ''S.&nbsp;fatalis'' from attaining the size of South America's ''S.&nbsp;populator''. The similarity in size of ''S.&nbsp;fatalis'' and the American lion suggests niche overlap and direct competition between these species, and they appear to have fed on similarly sized prey.<ref name="Felidmass" />

[[File:Great American Biotic Interchange examples.svg|thumb|right|Animals that participated in the [[Great American Interchange]], with North American migrants like ''S.&nbsp;populator'' (lower right) in blue]]
''S. gracilis'' entered South America during the early to middle Pleistocene, where it probably gave rise to ''S.&nbsp;populator'', which lived in the eastern part of the continent. ''S.&nbsp;fatalis'' also entered western South America in the late Pleistocene, and the two species were thought to be divided by the [[Andes mountains]].<ref name=Kurten /><ref name="Rincón2011" /><ref name="Turner" /> However, in 2018, a skull of ''S.&nbsp;fatalis'' found in [[Uruguay]] east of the Andes was reported, which puts the idea that the two species were [[allopatric]] (geographically separated) into question.<ref name="Manzuetti2018">{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.11.024|title=First record of ''Smilodon fatalis'' Leidy, 1868 (Felidae, Machairodontinae) in the extra-Andean region of South America (late Pleistocene, Sopas Formation), Uruguay: Taxonomic and paleobiogeographic implications |journal=[[Quaternary Science Reviews]] |volume= 180|pages= 57–62|year= 2018|last1= Manzuetti|first1= A.|last2= Perea|first2= D.|last3= Ubilla|first3= M.|last4= Rinderknecht|first4= A. |bibcode=2018QSRv..180...57M }}</ref> The American interchange resulted in a mix of native and [[invasive species]] sharing the prairies and woodlands in South America; North American herbivores included proboscideans, horses, [[camelid]]s and deer, South American herbivores included toxodonts, litopterns, ground sloths, and glyptodonts. The native [[metatherian]] predators, the [[Sparassodonta]], had gone extinct by the Pliocene, and were replaced by North American carnivores such as canids, bears, and large cats.{{Sfn|Antón|2013|pp=65–76}}<ref name="NoNicheCompetition">{{cite journal |last1=Freitas-Oliveira |first1=Roniel |last2=Lima-Ribeiro |first2=Matheus S. |last3=Terribile |first3=Levi Carina |title=No evidence for niche competition in the extinction of the South American saber-tooth species |journal=npj Biodiversity |date=2024 |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=11 |doi=10.1038/s44185-024-00045-7|pmid=39242707 |pmc=11332042 |bibcode=2024npjBD...3...11F }}</ref><ref name="Prevosti et al 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Prevosti |first1=Francisco J. |last2=Forasiepi |first2=Analía |last3=Zimicz |first3=Natalia |date=5 November 2011 |title=The Evolution of the Cenozoic Terrestrial Mammalian Predator Guild in South America: Competition or Replacement? |journal=Journal of Mammalian Evolution |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=3–21 |doi=10.1007/s10914-011-9175-9 |s2cid=15751319 |hdl-access=free |hdl=11336/2663}}</ref>

''S. populator'' may have been able to reach larger size than ''S. fatalis'' due to a lack of competition in Pleistocene South America; ''S. populator'' arrived after the extinction of ''[[Arctotherium angustidens]]'', one of the largest carnivores ever, and could therefore assume the niche of mega-carnivore.<ref name="Felidmass">Sherani, S. (2016). ''A new specimen-dependent method of estimating felid body mass (No. e2327v2)''. PeerJ Preprints.</ref> ''S. populator'' preferred large prey from open habitats such as grassland and plains, based on evidence gathered from isotope ratios that determined the animal's diet. In this way, the South American ''Smilodon'' species was probably similar to the modern lion. ''S. populator'' probably competed with the canid ''[[Protocyon]]'' there, but not with the jaguar, which fed primarily on smaller prey.<ref name="Bocherens2016">{{cite journal |last1=Bocherens |first1=H. |last2=Cotte |first2=M. |last3=Bonini |first3=R. |last4=Scian |first4=D. |last5=Straccia |first5=P. |last6=Soibelzon |first6=L. |last7=Prevosti |first7=F. J. |date=2016-04-24 |title=Paleobiology of sabretooth cat ''Smilodon population'' in the Pampean Region (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) around the Last Glacial Maximum: Insights from carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in bone collagen |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.02.017 |volume=449 |pages=463–474|bibcode=2016PPP...449..463B |hdl=11336/43965 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Hays |first=B. |date=2016-03-21 |title=Saber-toothed cats were the lions of prehistoric South America |website=UPI Science News |publisher=UPI |url=http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2016/03/21/Saber-toothed-cats-were-the-lions-of-prehistoric-South-America/1841458566285/ |access-date=19 April 2016}}</ref> On the other hand, morphometry points to ''S. populator'' being best adapted for more closed environments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Meloro |first1=Carlo |last2=Elton |first2=Sarah |last3=Louys |first3=Julien |last4=Bishop |first4=Laura C. |last5=Ditchfield |first5=Peter |date=18 March 2013 |title=Cats in the forest: predicting habitat adaptations from humerus morphometry in extant and fossil Felidae (Carnivora) |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/abs/cats-in-the-forest-predicting-habitat-adaptations-from-humerus-morphometry-in-extant-and-fossil-felidae-carnivora/AB965A6E897A798DFE053AE125CDF730 |journal=[[Paleobiology (journal)|Paleobiology]] |language=en |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=323–344 |doi=10.1666/12001 |bibcode=2013Pbio...39..323M |issn=0094-8373 |access-date=21 January 2024 |via=Cambridge Core}}</ref>