Paws For Thought

Several types of sabre-toothed cat lived for over 40 million years, before becoming extinct about 12,000 years ago.

15:59 03 December 2015

New archaeological evidence suggests that sabre-toothed cat lived in Europe alongside early humans.

 

The fossils that were unearthed at a site in Germany were 300,000 years old and were described as "spectacular."

 

Dr Jordi Serangeli, of the University of Tubingen, Germany, said: "We can say that the humans - and the sabre-toothed cat - were living 300,000 years ago in the same area, in the same landscape."

 

"The humans were hunters, but they were not alone; they had to defend themselves from all the big carnivores."

 

He added: "The discovery illustrates the possible day-to-day challenges that the Schöningen hominins would have faced and suggests that the wooden spears were not necessarily only used for hunting, but possibly also as a weapon for self-defence."

 

Meanwhile, Dr Mark Roberts, an archaeologist at the Boxgrove site in southern England, said that there is not enough evidence to conclude that the humans killed the cat.

 

Evidence shows "hominins (humans and their ancestors) were already the top predator at this time; they were able to kill and butcher, without interruption and competition, large animals such as rhino, bison, horse and giant deer", he said.

 

"If it could have been demonstrated that hominins killed the cat then that would have been very interesting but without more skeletal material that is impossible to demonstrate."