Re: Weak Vampires?

On Mar 18, 8:13 am, jdnic...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (James Nicoll) wrote:
>
>         1: The smilodon solution. Sabre teeth let cats take down
surprisingly
> large prey, which is why it keeps re-evolving (But being dependent on
large
> prey, by definition more prone to population collapses than small, is
why
> sabre toothed cats keep dying out).
>

Actually, there was recent study that claimed that computer modelling
of sabre tooth tigers showed that they weren't so good at obtaining
jaw pressure from their cranial structure.  Apparently a modern tiger
or lion has a more efficient skull for leveraging muscle tension into
kg/cm2 or pounds/square inch at the jaw's point of contact.

p.s. Yes, I know I should say newton/cm2, but who the heck cares about
newtons anyway.