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conductr 4 minutes ago [-]
If you watch predator behavior, they will always go for an easy kill. The tar pit provides those opportunities. Also, if these opportunities are routine enough and occur in a hyper local area, it’s hardly even hunting they become more like scavengers patrolling the area and perhaps defending it from competition.
That said, it seems more likely to me cats near the tar pits just held the territory and became inbred from that. You can see similar patterns today around a junk yard. There will be feral dogs or cats that are living off the trash. They protect it from outsiders and inbreed.
That’s if inbred is even the explanation. I think it’s also possible that weak or deformed cats may just prefer this site more than healthy cats as they are hungry enough to take the risk. So the population bias is inherently there through attendance.
litoE 7 hours ago [-]
Wouldn't it make sense to assume that as the size of the population decreases, perhaps for external factors such as climate change, you are going to see more and more inbreeding?
chrisco255 8 hours ago [-]
I think the study makes a giant presumptive leap to assume inbreeding was the cause of the higher-than-modern-human incidences of spinal tumors. It's irresponsible to assert this to be true instead of one of several possible explanations.
icegreentea2 8 hours ago [-]
The study and the summary do not "assume" that the cause was inbreeding. They both assert that inbreeding could be a cause.
The article says "The team suspects these deformities and tumors indicate a lengthy history of inbreeding".
The paper abstract says "possibly because of an accumulation of expressed deleterious alleles that caused disturbances in developmental processes".
It's perfectly ok for scientists to write down and publish their speculation, as long as it's suffiently clear. I think it's quite clear in this case.
dimes 7 hours ago [-]
An assertion without conclusive evidence is an assumption.
mythrwy 4 hours ago [-]
They are not asserting a fact. They are asserting a possibility. Asserting a possibility is not an assumption.
6 hours ago [-]
Retr0id 8 hours ago [-]
Seems like there's also a sampling bias, where the less able-bodied animals are more likely to get trapped in tar for scientists to study.
webdoodle 5 hours ago [-]
Yep. For instance it could be from higher cosmic ray penetration into the earth during the last geomagnetic excursion.
NL807 6 hours ago [-]
I was always puzzled how these cats actually fed. These sabre toots seem to get in the way of feeding and chewing.
t-3 3 hours ago [-]
Cats don't really chew much anyway. If sabre-tooths have a rough tongue like other cats, they can probably scour flesh off bones with that with little need to work over the meat with their teeth.
NL807 38 minutes ago [-]
>Cats don't really chew much anyway.
Is that actually true? If you observe domestic cats feeding, they chew a lot. Small fragments at a time and chew the crap out of it. Whether that's also true for big cats, i don't know.
t-3 20 minutes ago [-]
My cats only chew hard things like kibble, but never chew their wet food, and if given meat or fish, they tear and swallow without chewing.
zarflax 5 hours ago [-]
I know I'd certainly be discouraged from feeding if I got the sabre toots.
thaumasiotes 5 hours ago [-]
> These sabre toots seem to get in the way of feeding and chewing.
Why? They don't stop the mouth from closing. Presumably they don't stop it from opening either.
Compare walruses, elephants, and pigs.
NL807 34 minutes ago [-]
>They don't stop the mouth from closing. Presumably they don't stop it from opening either.
That much is obvious. The question is how they get around sabre tooth without being a major obstruction to bite pieces of meat off.
As for the other animals, Elephants mostly use their trunks to put food in their mouths. Pigs, their teeth are not that huge comparatively speaking and less of an obstruction, plus the have a very long snouts. Walruses, I have no idea how they manage to feed either.
King-Aaron 4 hours ago [-]
> Compare walruses, elephants, and pigs.
Three animals that are well known for their apex predator hunting prowess
thaumasiotes 4 hours ago [-]
Was the question more about ability to hunt, or ability to chew?
King-Aaron 4 hours ago [-]
It goes hand-in-hand when you're comparing these kinds of animals.
47 minutes ago [-]
Animats 10 hours ago [-]
Another predator that went through a genetic choke point. Cheetahs did, too.[1]
Cheetahs survived, but they are so similar genetically that they get the same illnesses, and skin grafts between unrelated cheetahs are not rejected.
That said, it seems more likely to me cats near the tar pits just held the territory and became inbred from that. You can see similar patterns today around a junk yard. There will be feral dogs or cats that are living off the trash. They protect it from outsiders and inbreed.
That’s if inbred is even the explanation. I think it’s also possible that weak or deformed cats may just prefer this site more than healthy cats as they are hungry enough to take the risk. So the population bias is inherently there through attendance.
The article says "The team suspects these deformities and tumors indicate a lengthy history of inbreeding".
The paper abstract says "possibly because of an accumulation of expressed deleterious alleles that caused disturbances in developmental processes".
It's perfectly ok for scientists to write down and publish their speculation, as long as it's suffiently clear. I think it's quite clear in this case.
Is that actually true? If you observe domestic cats feeding, they chew a lot. Small fragments at a time and chew the crap out of it. Whether that's also true for big cats, i don't know.
Why? They don't stop the mouth from closing. Presumably they don't stop it from opening either.
Compare walruses, elephants, and pigs.
That much is obvious. The question is how they get around sabre tooth without being a major obstruction to bite pieces of meat off.
As for the other animals, Elephants mostly use their trunks to put food in their mouths. Pigs, their teeth are not that huge comparatively speaking and less of an obstruction, plus the have a very long snouts. Walruses, I have no idea how they manage to feed either.
Three animals that are well known for their apex predator hunting prowess
[1] https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/108/6/671/3836924