Giant Cheetah and Thylacosmilus

Giant Cheetah

 Europe, Germany, France, China, and India

2,500,000 - 10,000

 The Giant Cheetah was the size of a african lion. It is thought that the Giant Cheetah's habitat was mostly grassland like today's cheetah, and preyed on larger game. The Giant Cheetah is now thought to be one of the top predators of its time. Like the modern cheetah the Giant Cheetah was built for running, it is uncertain how fast the Giant Cheetah could run but it may have ran up to 70mph (modern cheetah top speed) or possibly slightly faster do to its longer legs and longer back compared to the modern cheetah.

We can only guess what the Giant Cheetah may have looked like but it is guessed that it may have looked a bit like the king cheetah (shown on the bottom left), the king cheetah variant is caused when the genes that control coat color produce more black then it should giving the cheetah stripes on its back and spots that are fused together. (Having black in places were it shouldn't be is called Melanism, the opposite is Leucism, when white appears in spots were it shouldn't be. both can happen in every animal including people.)

Golden cheetah/Leucistic cheetah
(Not Albino)

King cheetah/Melanistic cheetah

Thylacosmilus (marsupial saber tooth)
 South America and Argentina
10,000,000 - 2,000,000

 Thylacosmilus (thigh-la-coe-smile-us) was the last of the linage of saber toothed marsupials. (marsupials that looked like saber toothed cats) Despite it looking like a saber toothed cat their are key differences like the flanges on the lower jaw to protect the saber teeth, the incisors are missing all together because the canines became to big to have room for them, the molar teeth were quite small as well, and the canines never stopped growing throughout the animals life.

Thylacosmilus most likely hunted like smilodon by sinking its enlarged canines into the animals neck. The way Thylacosmilus ate is another matter. It is believed that Thylacosmilus' canines replaced the role of the incisors  by hooking its canines into the flesh and then polling away (kind of like using a knife) witch would have  sheared off chunks of flesh.