135 -- Felidae Prey Preference and Skull Morphology: How Do Sabertooth Cat Skulls Compare Against Their Extant Relatives?

The family Felidae (i.e., cats) is composed entirely of hypercarnivores—animals who are solely adapted for consuming prey. As a result of this, the skull morphology of felids is highly conserved across species with some deviations to accommodate the difference in relative prey size selection. Generally, felids can be broken down into small prey, large prey, and mixed prey specialists. The purpose of this research was to use geometric morphometrics to quantify the differences in skull shape between felid species based on prey size specialization and to use those findings as a baseline for comparison with the extinct felid Smilodon fatalis (sabertooth cat). This was accomplished by comparing consistent features on several felid skulls as landmarks. Through principal component analysis, I found that S. fatalis followed the same general trends in skull morphology as other large prey specialists. However,S. fatalis was found to have morphology more similar to Felis catus than some large prey specialists. This is intriguing because Felis catus, the domesticated cat, is a small prey specialist and the similarities between S. fatalis may lead to further inquiry into the lifestyle of this extinct predator.