The Thylacosmilus: Prehistoric Bolivia
by Andre
(BoliviaBella.com)
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The Thylacosmilus was a prehistoric creature that behaved or looked like some of the cat-family animals that exist today. Thylacosmilus was a marsupial with two "saber tooth-like" canine teeth. It had the largest saber teeth of all the placental and marsupial animals. This creature was about six feet long.
The name Thylacosmilus means "pouched saber" because it had a pouch, like a kangaroo, in which it carried its young. It weighed up to 260 pounds, similar to a modern-day jaguar, and is believed to have hunted glyptodonts.
The Thylacosmilus lived between the end of the Miocene and end of the Pliocene periods, and went it extinct about 3.5 million years ago, because when a land bridge formed to connect North and South America, other animals like wolves, bears and smilodon (who were more intelligent, larger and stronger than the Thylacosmilus) took over its territory.
The name Thylacosmilus means "pouched saber" because it had a pouch, like a kangaroo, in which it carried its young. It weighed up to 260 pounds, similar to a modern-day jaguar, and is believed to have hunted glyptodonts.
The Thylacosmilus lived between the end of the Miocene and end of the Pliocene periods, and went it extinct about 3.5 million years ago, because when a land bridge formed to connect North and South America, other animals like wolves, bears and smilodon (who were more intelligent, larger and stronger than the Thylacosmilus) took over its territory.
Image 1 source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Thylacosmilus#/media/File:Thylacosmilus_Amerika.jpg
Image 2 source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacosmilus#/media/File:Thylacosmilus_Atrox.jpg
Submitted 2015-05-13