The paleozoological laugh of the day

There are some things which make you laugh right in the morning and as I got a plugin on my igoogle-startup-site which brings me latest news of paleontology this one was mine today:


"...

"Historically there have been a number of interpretations about how Smilodon killed," says UNSW palaeontologist Dr Steve Wroe. "Early researchers thought it had a weak bite. More recently, people have suggested that the bite was strong."

Using the skull of a modern-day lion for comparison, the team determined that Smilodon had a relatively weak bite - about one third as powerful as a lion of similar size. "For all its reputation, Smilodon had a wimpy bite" says Dr Wroe. "It bit like a moggy."

In a range of "digital crash-tests", the team found that under most conditions, the sabre-tooth skull performed very poorly compared to that of the lion. This would have seriously limited the big toothed fossil cat cat to a very specific range of killing behaviours.

..."

(whole article )

Muahaha how poor is that! The fearocious predator Smilodon bit like a moggy? Thats even kinda cute! ;)

Thanks sciencedaily, you've rescued my free day ^^