Picture a big, barrel-chested animal, rather front-heavy, with long, powerful forelimbs, short, heavily muscled hindquarters, a short, lynx-like tail, and huge shoulders. The creature has an enormous, thick neck, a big head with deep jaws, and two long, horrifying canines, the size of bananas, hanging from its upper jaw. It’s built more like a bear, built to hold struggling prey down and deliver a killing blow with those fearsome fangs, but what you’re picturing is a cat. In North America, the sabertooth type is best known for the fearsome Smilodon fatalis, but in Siberia, the sabertooths were smaller, and more lightly built. They had smaller fangs, leading the the name “scimitar-tooth,” and a common genus was Homotherium.
In 2020, a Homotherium latidens kitten was found frozen in the Siberian permafrost, mummified but amazingly well-preserved; its fur,…
