Image courtesy of Steve Morton
Joel Kontinen
How do sabre-tooted animals evolve again in the cause of life? Evolution is a thing that is supposed to come one at a time. Animals are supposed to get an advantage and then die out.
But according to evolution, “predators have evolved sabre teeth many times during the history of life – and we now have a better idea why these teeth develop as they do.
Sabre teeth have very specific characteristics: they are exceptionally long, sharp canines that tend to be slightly flattened and curved, rather than rounded. Such teeth have independently evolved in different groups of mammals at least five times, and fossils of sabre-tooth predators have been found in North and South America, Europe and Asia.”
Here’s which New Scientist says about the event:
” The teeth are first known to have appeared some 270 million years ago, in mammal-like reptiles called gorgonopsids. Another example is Thylacosmilus, which died out about 2.5 million years ago and was most closely related to marsupials. Sabre teeth were last seen in Smilodon, often called sabre-toothed tigers, which existed until about 10,000 years ago.
To investigate why these teeth kept re-evolving, Tahlia Pollock at the University of Bristol, UK, and her colleagues looked at the canines of 95 carnivorous mammal species, including 25 sabre-toothed ones.
First, the researchers measured the shapes of the teeth to categorise and model them. Then they 3D-printed smaller versions of each tooth in metal and tested their performance in puncture tests, in which the teeth were mechanically pushed into gelatine blocks designed to mimic the density of animal tissue.
The study has millions of years with evolution, as evolution cannot be caused by thousands of years.
Source:
Chris Simms 2025 Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again | New Scientist 9 January
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