Sabre-Tooth Cat - Scale Model (1:20 scale)

In the action and adventure film 10,000 B.C. (released 14th March UK), the film's hero D'Leh (played by Steven Strait), saves a Sabre Tooth cat from a trap.  The animal depicted is truly huge and dwarfs the actors.  The animal depicted in the film has had what we call the "Hollywood Treatment" , often animals are depicted as being much larger in films than they actually were.  Often this is done for dramatic effect, for example in the 1933 classic "King Kong" the giant ape is depicted much larger in the screen shots of Kong roaming the streets of New York, as it was thought the earlier dimensions used for the Skull Island scenes, were not appropriate against the backdrop of tall skyscapers.

More recent films have continued this trend, in the Steven Spielberg directed "The Lost World", 1997 the sequel to "Jurassic Park" a number of dinosaurs are pictured out of proportion.  For example, in one of the early scenes a group of Stegosaurs are shown crossing a dried up river bed.  Although the animals are shown in the background, they are depicted as being far larger than they would have been in real life.

The largest known species of Smilodon is S. populator from South America.  A fully grown adult would have stood about 1.2 metres high at the shoulder, about the size of a large, male African lion (Panthero. leo).  However, the stocky and heavy set Smilodon would have weighed perhaps twice as much as an African lion, with an estimated weight of approximately 300 kilogrammes.

In contrast, a fully grown, male African Lion (Panthera leo) might weigh between 180 to 240 kilogrammes.

To see a Sabre-Tooth cat model: Scale model of Sabre-Tooth cat