Forgotten Museum Fossil Rewrites Saber-Tooth Lineage
A paleontologist at UC Berkeley reexamined a dusty fossil tucked in a drawer at the American Museum of Natural History, initially labeled as a generic cat. Using 3D scans and comparison with Adelphailurus kansensis, she linked it to an early saber-tooth lineage and contrasted it with Smilodon, revealing greater diversity among sabertooths and suggesting their fragile teeth helped drive extinction. The find also underscores how many such fossils may lie unopened in drawers worldwide.
