{"id":41620,"date":"2021-10-28T10:28:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T17:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41620"},"modified":"2021-10-28T10:28:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T17:28:58","slug":"these-hips-dont-lie-3d-imaging-of-a-pelvis-suggests-social-care-for-saber-tooths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41620","title":{"rendered":"These Hips Don\u2019t Lie: 3D Imaging of a Pelvis Suggests Social Care for Saber-Tooths"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study reveals saber-toothed cats suffered from hip dysplasia, an affliction common in pet cats and dogs, and points to supportive social structures for Smilodon.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nA detail from the 1988 Mark Hallett mural, \u201cTrapped in Time,\u201d depicting saber-toothed cats digging into prey. A new study adds to mounting evidence that these killers possibly shared some of their kills with Smilodon unable to hunt for themselves. Courtesy: La Brea Tar Pits.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>Los Angeles, CA (October 28, 2021)<\/strong>\u2014You can\u2019t spell \u2018Smilodon fatalis<\/em>\u2019 without \u2018fatal\u2019, but researchers at La Brea Tar Pits may have found a softer side to saber-toothed cats along with a connection to our own feline and canine companions.<\/p>\n

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Published in\u00a0Scientific Reports<\/em>, a new\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0led by Dr. Mairin Balisi, Postdoctoral Fellow at La Brea Tar Pits, in collaboration with orthopaedic surgeons at Cedars-Sinai hospital, used 3D image reconstruction of external and internal bone morphology of a deformed\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0hip bone to reveal this saber-toothed cat suffered from hip dysplasia, suggesting a social structure that helped members survive to adulthood even when they couldn\u2019t hunt for themselves due to this birth defect.<\/p>\n

Part of the richness of La Brea Tar Pits\u2019 collection are the fossils exhibiting signs of injury and disease \u2013 the more than 8,000 specimens that make up the pathology collection. These damaged bones are incredibly valuable for better understanding extinct animals\u2019 behavior. For instance, the lower-back trauma found (and reported in an earlier\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0by Dr. Balisi) in many\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0vertebrae points to a hunting style that includes grappling with large Ice Age prey, like bison. For more than a century, paleontologists thought the massive destruction of the pelvis examined in this study was caused by trauma or infection that eventually led to the animal\u2019s death, but a look inside the bone using modern medical technology told a different story.<\/p>\n

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\nA three-dimensional scan of the pathological pelvis and femur. Technologies like this and medical imaging have allowed paleontologists to re-interpret collection specimens, and to share them more readily, leading to new discoveries about extinct animals, the way they lived, and their environments. A video of the pelvis can be viewed\u00a0here<\/a>. Courtesy: La Brea Tar Pits.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Using computed tomography, the same technology common in hospitals (and veterinarian offices), the pelvis and matching thighbone were scanned, and the resulting images were used to create 3D models of the inside of the bones.\u00a0\u201cTo quote Roy Moodie in his 1930 study: this pelvis is \u2018the most strikingly pathological object in the collection of Rancho La Brea fossils.\u2019 And so if we were to CT-scan a specimen\u2013with CT being a resource-intensive method\u2013then we had to start with this one,\u201d says Dr. Balisi.<\/p>\n

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\u200b\u200bThe now-famous pelvis-in-mirror image from Moodie\u2019s 1930 paper. Moodie along with paleontologists originally interpreted the specimen\u2019s deformation to be the result of a traumatic injury instead of a developmental defect. Courtesy: La Brea Tar Pits.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cUnderstanding the 3D shape of a skeleton is fascinating to me,\u201d says co-author Dr. Robert Klapper, orthopaedic surgeon and sculptor. Seeing the sheer amount of skulls on the Tar Pits\u2019 dire wolf wall over a decade ago led to talking his way into the collection. \u201cWhen I saw the incredible display of bones at La Brea Tar Pits, I immediately asked to meet (then Collections Manager and study co-author) Chris Shaw. I asked him where were the abnormal joints that I knew must have existed. Chris took me to the stacks and showed me the three pelvises and one femur that he was studying. That\u2019s when we decided to collaborate and began the analysis of the etiology of the end-stage degeneration of the saber-tooth hips.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This scanned cat\u2019s CAT scan upended the previous interpretation of its hip bones. After careful analysis of the bones\u2019 internal structure, the team concluded that the damage wasn\u2019t the result of an injury suffered on the hunt, but congenital hip dysplasia.<\/p>\n

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An image taken from the\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0of the pathological pelvis belonging to Smilodon fatalis scrolling anteroposteriorly created by co-author Carrie Howard from CT scans generated at the S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center at Cedars Sinai Medical Group. Courtesy: La Brea Tar Pits.<\/p>\n

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“Computed tomography (CT) was utilized by our research group to test hypothesized etiologies of hip degeneration in the Smilodon pelvis and femur bone specimens, as it allowed us to observe the anatomical distortions at a more granular level and create three-dimensional reconstructions to use in determining how well the pathology corresponded to that typically seen in bones subjected to many years of chronic remodeling,\u201d says Dr. Abhinav Sharma, co-lead author and physician. \u201cAdditionally, from a medical standpoint, I am incredibly excited to share this study\u2019s findings because it helps illuminate the utility of 3D reconstruction for the characterization of pathology in human bone specimens and highlights its potential for use in creation of patient-specific surgical implants and prostheses tailored for each individual\u2019s unique anatomy.”<\/p>\n

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Common in pet dogs and cats, the malformation of the hip bone\u2019s ball and socket joints called hip dysplasia would have been extremely problematic for\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>.\u00a0Smilodon\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0impressive size meant that it needed to prey on megaherbivores like bison and camels to survive. Like living big cats,\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0needed strong hind limbs for speed, and from the initial leap to the subsequent grappling required to take down large prey, healthy hips would have been critical to their hunting strategy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn this case, our animal sustained a developmental condition (not an injury) and was able to live to adulthood\u2013suggesting that it must have received support, perhaps by food-sharing with its family,\u201d says Dr. Balisi.<\/p>\n

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Hobbled since it was a kitten, this individual could never have hunted or defended territory on its own. While a beloved labrador retriever might receive a hip replacement or careful pampering by human owners, a\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0would have been left to nature\u2013and their saber-toothed family. This big cat\u2019s survival to adulthood suggests that saber-toothed cats took care of one another.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSocial behavior is difficult to infer in fossils.\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0in particular is only distantly related to big cats today (like the distance between our house-cats and the African lion, if not greater),\u201d says Dr. Balisi. \u201cSo we can’t reconstruct\u00a0Smilodon’s<\/em>\u00a0sociality based on, say, living lions and tigers. Living big cats range in social structure anyway: the lion is the only one that’s truly social, while tigers and jaguars tend to be solitary or even vary in sociality within a single species.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn\u00a0Smilodon’s<\/em>\u00a0case, we are lucky to have multiple lines of evidence\u2013a lot of them from La Brea Tar Pits\u2013suggesting that it was social,\u201d Dr. Balisi says. \u201cThousands of individuals are preserved here, which is more likely if\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0had been social than solitary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This isn\u2019t the first sign of saber-tooth social behavior. In other\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0fossils, researchers have found signs of healing from grievous injuries that likely would\u2019ve meant starving without support. Dr. Balisi adds, \u201cevidence from tooth and bone development also support\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0having had delayed weaning and extended family care\u2013not just from here but also from other asphalt seeps globally, like Corralito in Ecuador.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While we can never fully understand the social structures of extinct animals like\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>, computed tomography and digital data will continue to help diagnose their injuries, revealing more about how they lived and lived with each other.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis study is a great example of how scientific knowledge evolves through the inclusion of new perspectives and technologies,\u201d says Dr. Emily Lindsey, Assistant Curator and Excavation Site Director at La Brea Tar Pits. \u201cPeople have been thinking about this bone for more than a century, but when you have a top medical facility literally just down the block from a world-famous fossil site it opens up whole new worlds of possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Authors are affiliated with La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California, United States of America. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced, California, United States of America. David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America. Idaho Museum of Natural History, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho, United States of America. Orthopaedics, Cedars Sinai Medical Group, Los Angeles, California, United States of America. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America. Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California \u2013 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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