Lead author Ashley Reynolds holds the Smilodon fatalis metacarpal from Medicine Hat, Alberta in this handout image provided by the Royal Ontario Museum. On the table are a S. fatalis skull and canine tooth from Peru. Scientists have found fossil evidence from the Ice Age of a sabre-tooth cat in southern Alberta -- the northern-most record of the predator. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Royal Ontario Museum- Danielle Dufault
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
The discovery of sabre-toothed tiger fossils in Medicine Hat is something that both paleontologists and the general public will sink their own teeth into, those in the field say.
On Friday, the Canadian Journal of Earth Scientists revealed that the fossil had been found in a dig conducted in the 1960s in the vicinity of the city, and only identified this year.
Only a small bone from a paw was collected, but could lead to further discoveries, and the image could grow large in imaginations, said Emily Bamford at the T.Rex (Sask.) Discovery Centre.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Bamford, whose facility houses the largest ever skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“The sabre-tooth cat is one of the most iconic prehistoric animals out there. It’s got a big place in popular lore, and so far it’s the first one ever discovered in Canada.”
The cats were previously found only as far north as Idaho, and were made famous from discoveries in the Labrea Tar Pits of Los Angeles, as well as the Flintstones and other popular culture references.
Scientifically, “it fills a hole in the ecology” on the southern Canadian Prairies before the last ice age, said Bamford.
Technically known as a smiledon fatalis, the creature lived 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, and would have been larger than a present day African lion. It hunted mammoths, giant bison and horses as the ice age approached.
Sabre-toothed cats and dinosaurs didn’t exist in the same time, but Carolann Cross-Roen, the head of youth service’s at the Medicine Hat Public Library, said they both feed a child’s imagination.
“The three groups that know the most about dinosaurs are paleontologists, five-year-olds and the parents of five-year-olds,” she joked.
“Dinosaurs are very popular, even before they can read and just pick out pictures. (Older children) find it particularly interesting when they can link up places and know that these things were here.
“It helps it all come to life.”
The region has been a hot bed of dinosaur and fossil discoveries for more than a century, and each year several expeditions explore for fossils each year.
Amateurs have been known to scour riverbanks after floods looking for fossilized wood and other fragments. The Saamis Archaeological site contains a buffalo jump and butchering ground from several thousand years old.
North of Brooks, Dinosaur Provincial Park drew fossil hunters from around the world starting in the early 1900s. With nearly 60 previously undiscovered species revealed there, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the fall of 2017, the News detailed the process of removing a 2,000-pound fossilized skull of a Chasmosaurus by helicopter from a bone bed near Hilda.
Bamford said that academics and others will be invigorated by the find.
She compared the recent discovery to the “Kyle Mammoth” that was discovered in 1964 and named for the nearby town in southwest Saskatchewan.
That animal would measure 6.5 metres from tusk to tail and weigh about five tonnes.
