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The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives: An Illustrated Guide to Their Evolution
and Natural History

Article  in  BioScience · October 1997

DOI: 10.2307/1313168

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Books

Reviving the extinct cats

ures showingthe skulls, skeletons, mus-

"
culature, and life appearancc of fossi l
Colts breathes life into what Turner
,. calls "the dry bones in the laboratory"
I :r' (p. xiv). Turner's informative, read-
'"" ' able text describes the morpho\ogy,
appearance, and distribution of fossil
cats, and his extensive figure capti ons
providefurthcrtcchnical derails. Here

Downloaded from http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on January 29, 2016

The Big Cats ao d Their Fossil Rela-
tive s: An IIlu strated Guide to Thcir
Evolution and Nat ural History. Alan
Turner. Ill ust ratio ns by Maur icio
Anton. Co lum bia Univer sity l)r ess,
New York, 1997. 234 pp. , illus.
$39.95. (ISBN 0-2] 1-10228-3 cloth).
As a cb il d, I s penc hours c ngrossed Ln
R. B. H orsfa'lI's rc(;ons([ucrions of
Jo ng-exrin cr ma mmal s and wished
that ir were possible ro bring [ 0 Iifc
thc saber -toothed cars of his paint-
ings and see these fearsome animals
in th e flesh . In their marvelous new
book, Alan Turner and Mauricio
Anron have co me elose to granting
my wish. Focusing on the scvcn larg-
est exranc ca rs, rhq' trace rheir an-
eestry back 30 million ycars, cxam-
ining sume of ehe remarkable torms
th at preceded the liens, tigers, and
their relat ives, whj~h are so well
known today. Thi s volume is ehe
first to olssemble t he diffic üh-to-fino
infor ma cion on foss il ca ts a nd to
synthesize this material into a n ac-
cessible, beautifLl l1 y presented work
that is absorbing 1.0 read.
An intr od ucto r y chapter sets t he
sce nc. for the wea lth of information
to follow. The clcar a nd cone ise ex-
plana tions o f se iell tific term in ology,
as weil as of th c processes hy w hic h
foss il s form and are excavated. wi ll
immediate ly ca pmre t hc ge nera l
reader. Th e s e.~onc1 chapter d iscusses
the origin of rhe ca rs and orh er ca[-
nivores and explains rh e key points
of evolution. Thi s eh,tpeer includes a
graphie illustration of co nverge nee:
thc occurfcnce of t he ext raordinary
"sabe r" tooth specia lization in four
different gro ups of mamma ls, indud -
ing, surprisingly, a marsupial for m.
Each of rhese gIO Up S is discussed
briefl)' and is acco 11lp anied by
Anton's accurart illustrarions.
H owever, ie is in chaprer 3, which
profiles ind ividu a l sp~c i ~s of exri ncr
cats, that thc skill of t he illu str<lcor
really shines. An ab unda nce of fig-
is the massive, formidable SmiJodoll
populator, w hic h hold 28 cm long
canines, as we il ols t he unusua ll y lo ng-
limbed gia nr Homotherium latidens,
a possibleecologiea l inte rmed iate be-
tween pantherineca ts and hyenas. T he-
nead y lion-sizcd European c hecta h is
shown a longside the present-day chee-
ta h and is fo ll owed by ehe cursoria l
North Am\!rican MiracillollYx, whose
body proporrions li e betw eell those
of modern-day pumas and chec ra hs
hut who seems to have filled a nlehe
that is eloser to the latter. This sec-
tion ends with 16 co lor plates show-
ing extinct Colts in eheie likely habi-
tats-hunting t he la rge herbivores of
the cra, fightin g Ovee femal es, or
merdy greeting one another in typi-
ca l fe lin e fashion.
These beautiful painrings inrro-
duce the seco nd half of t he book,
w hic h artempts ro exp lai n rhe a na -
wmica l and ph ysiolog iea l adapta -
ti ons of foss il cars and rbeir ro les in
th e lifesty les of extin~r spe(;ies. Not
surprisin gly, muc h of chis secl ioll is
devoted to skeleton s an d sku ll s, an d
it includcs a long discu ssio ll. Oll the
fascinating saber teech of Smiludun
and similar form s. M an)' a rliclcs have
been wrilten about th ese ex traordi -
nary adaptation s, and Turner and
Ant6n demon stratc how some rheo-
ries are clearl)' unwo rkable. Des pite
their fearsome appearan~e, th ese
huge emines were more fragile than
the short, conical ree th of today's
!arge cars, so kill ing tcchniqut s must
have differed. The mass ivel y [obust
skeleton s and mu seu l ~\tur e of t he
sabe r-toothed cats suggest rh at t hey

6 14 BioScience Vo/. 47 No. 9

 used their great strength to wrestle
large herbivores to the grounu anu
onll' then applied a killing bite to the
throat. If the eats had stabbed the teeth
into the prey before it was down and
seeured, as modern big cars may do,
they would have risked breaking their
rccrh rhrough simple torsion if their
prey hau moved at a11 during the bite.
Despite the apparent eaution with
whieh the saber-toothed eats suh-
dued their prey, the ears appear to
have paid a high priee for the suite of
adaptations that enabled them to deal
with young mammoths, giant camclids,
bison, and other large ungulates. Thou-
sands of Smiladan banes from the
famous Rancho La Brea sam pIe show
the results of stress injuries that were
apparently due to lateral movements
of the limbs that oeeurred during the
struggle with large prey animals. Fur-
thermore, many speeimens show inju-
ries that appear to be rhe result of
fighting with other eats. Most of the
injuries heaJed weIl before the animal
died; however, some individuals were
evidently debilitated enough that the
authors suggest rhat same fossil spe-
eies must havc lived in soeial groups
similar to those of modern-da\' lions
to have ensured their survivai.
The possibility that fossil fclids
lived in soeial groups is discussed in
detail in chapter 5, whieh is devoted
to the behavior and ecology of ex-
tinet cars. As the authors concede,
this aspect of their work is perhaps
the most specu1ative. The chapter is
fascinating, but the seetion on sod-
ality is the weakest part of the book.
In making comparisons with mod-
ern-day species, Turner and Anton
consider benefits to hunting to be the
primary reason for grou p fonna tion.
A1though sociality in carnivores mal'
carry advantages in prey eapture and
handling, long-term studies have
demonstrated that this benefit alone
is not enough to explain grouping
behavior in, for example, lions and
male cheetahs. Strength in numbers
may give a crueial advantage in de-
fending territodes and, ultimately,
in reproductive success. Of course,
such an advantage is difficultenough
to demonstrare in studies of extant
eats, let alone fossil species, and many
of the seenarim. that the authors
present are possible, if perhaps not
for the reasons suggested. Through-
out the book, the authors avoid trea t-
616
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ing their interpretations as the rule
for an)' extinet species; instead, they
depict their interpretations as rea-
sonable possibilities within a range
of hunting and grouping strategies
that the fossil cats may have adopted.
The book coneIudes with a dis-
cussion of the ehanges on Eanh that
have occurred over the last 10 mil-
lion years and eonsiders how these
changes ultimately led to the extine-
tion of fossil cats. The changing fauna
are depieted in ascries of illustra-
tions shO\.ving the dominant mem-
bers of the carnivore and ungulate
guilds from pivotal periods in pre-
hisrory, and a short overview of the
evolution of eats condudes witb a
usefullist of where fossil specimens
are exhihited. There is also a list of
further reading, although Turner has
opted not to eite rcferenees in the
text, presumabll' so as not to hinder
the narrative tone of the text. Oeca-
sionally this omission is frustrating,
but because researchers are fre-
quenrly rderred to by name, it is
possible to discern the primary source
of the information.
This book deserves and no douht
will attract a wide readership. Paleon-
tologists will appreciate the teehnical
detail and the trove of information
colleeted in a single work. Cat bio10-
gists will find the reconsrruction of
their subjects' ancestors irresistible,
and nonspecialists will enjo)' the ac-
cessible, fascinatingtext. Everyone will
be enthra11ed by the abundant illustra-
tions. Whether YOUf intercst is scien-
tific or you merely wonder what a
gianteatwhose teethinspired the name
"he who brings devastation" looked
like, this book is not to be missed.
LUKE HU:\TER
Mammal Research Tnstilute
University of lJretoria
Pretoria 0002
Snut!; Africa
ENERGY AND THE LlFE
OFBIRDS
Avian Energetics and Nutritional
Ecology. Cynthia Carey, ed.
Chapman & Hall, Ncw York, 1996.
543 pp., iHus. $89.95. (ISBN 0-412-
03701-7 cloth).
The 1974 publication of thc pro-
ceedings of a symposium entirled
"Avian Energetics" summarized
what was then known about energy
use throughollt the avian life eycle
(Paynter 1974). At that time, avian
energeties was a relatively new fjeld
of study, and this volume was crucial
to stimulating interest in and research
on avian energetics. Indeed, when J
first expressed an interest in avian
energetics as a possible area for
graduate study, a professor of mine
wisely diteeted me to this volume.
The present volume, Avian Energet-
ics and Nutritianal Ecology, at-
tempts to review the current status
of knowledge on avian cnergetics; it
naturally incorporates the eIosely
allicd topie of nutrition. This addi~
tion is important beeause intake of
specific llutrients, rather than en-
Downloaded from http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on January 29, 2016
ergy intake per se, may be limiting
during eerrain phases of the biru
life eyeIe.
Avian Energetics and Nutritional
Ecology is a multiaurhored vo1u111e
consisting of 14 chapters that to-
gether cover most aspcets of the avian
life eyde, including reproduction,
cmhryonic development, incubation,
postnatal growth, molting, winter-
ing, and migration. In addition, sev-
eral topies that perrain ro multiple
aspeets of the avian life erde, such as
nutrition, flight, foraging, ther-
moregulation, and population ener-
geties, are treated in detail. Same
chapters serve as definitive reviews
of a partieular subjeet area, whereas
others follow a "current trends in
research" approach in dealingwith a
specific subject area. In its entirety,
the hook provides a hroad and use-
ful, albeit not eomprehensive, re-
view of avian energerics. In the pref-
ace, the editor, Cynthia Carey,
mentions that notable gaps in cover-
age include time-energy budgets, ter-
restrial aud aquatic locomotion, en-
erg)' flow in communiries, and
starvation, and she notes that the
discussion of reproduetive energet-
ics is limited to females. Neverthe-
less, anyone who is cven rcmotely
interested in avian energeties will
want ro have this book on the shelf.
Multiauthored volumes have the
potential to lack a C01111110n cohesive
threaJ, and they sometimes suffer
from disjointcd writing styles. Nei-
ther is a major problem in this book:
The writing is mostly cxccllent, and
the common theme of how birds use
BioScience Val. 47 No. 9