CollectA 88715 Smilodon: A walkaround by Kikimalou

Kikimalou wrote:

smilodoncalifornicus wrote:

I respectfully do not agree about the Mojo figure.  I don't think its too stocky.  I don't even think its stocky enough in certain areas.  The Mojo cats limbs are too long according to fossils and its forelimbs still not built thick enough.  The CollectA figure's forelimbs are MUCH to long and much to slender for a Smilodon.  Look at this:

Paleontologist Julie Meachen-Samuels of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham talking about Smilodon's forelimbs:
“I found that they had exceptionally thick humerus cortical bones—much thicker than any non-saber-toothed cat living or extinct,” said Meachen-Samuels, who used a digital X-ray machine to analyze the limb bones of Smilodon specimens from California’s La Brea Tar Pits in 2010.

The CollectA Smilodon to me is not true to skeletons according to this Paleontologist's findings.
There is nothing stocky about the CollectA's forelimbs on that figurine...they are very slender and long, more like a modern extant cats are.

I believe just about 95% of all Smilodon figurines made, are not scientifically accurate at all.

I understand your point but I'm not convinced. Talking about bones and talking about muscles is not the same thing.

Human beings are human beings, same skeletal but with big differences in muscles and shapes.

Some are looking like thin people without big muscles, some with very big muscles, some with more fat than muscles, some...

A marathon runner has a different body than a sprinter.
A weightlifter has a different body than a Body-builder.
A boxer has a different body than a Greco-Roman wrestler.

A Body-builder has a different body than a Greco-Roman wrestler. The body-builder has big static musculature and the Greco-Roman wrestler has a dynamic musculature. The shape is completely different.

IMHO a smilodon isn't a body-builder, no animal can have a body-builder musculature. A smilodon is not hunting like a sprinter or a weightlifter, it was an animal who needed to ambush preys and firmly hold them in place for the killing. The best analogy for me is the Greco-Roman wrestler. Greco-Roman wrestler have a dynamic musculature, powerful but not inflated like body-builder one.

Paleontologist Julie Meachen-Samuels is talking about exceptionally thick humerus cortical bones, not about stocky forelimbs. A thick humerus cortical bones means that smilodon had powerful muscles, not necessarily stocky. Elephants have thick bones, it doesn't mean they have Schwarzenegger body shape.

The other constant reference is the bear like shape. Let's talk about brown bears, grizzlies or polar bears: Powerful animals, hunters, with big bones, very strong forelimbs AND thick fur.

Remove the thick fur and change for a lion fur, far less thick (exept for the mane   ), bears haven't a body-builder body, they have a dynamic musculature, very powerful but not stocky.

Carnegie or Mojo smilodon are looking as stocky has a polar bear with thick fur but they have short smooth coat. Each time I look at them I think there is something weird.

The CollectA is maybe not perfect but the forelimbs are more powerful than those of the CollectA lion for example. I prefer this one to the Carnegie and even more to the Mojo. Even if my favorite is still the Kaiyodo one  

I disagree with your views on this cat.  I believe what all the Paleo-experts have said over and over.  Smilodon was a very stocky cat with shorter limbs and exceptional bone AND muscle mass compared to any extant big cat. Smilodon was about the same dimensions as a modern day lion, but believed to be excessively heavier.

smilodoncalifornicus wrote:

I disagree with your views on this cat.  I believe what all the Paleo-experts have said over and over.  Smilodon was a very stocky cat with shorter limbs and exceptional bone AND muscle mass compared to any extant big cat. Smilodon was about the same dimensions as a modern day lion, but believed to be excessively heavier.

I know you disagree and I'm affraid you are changing my mind about this one

Overall I like him, but disappointed about his face. Unlike body, head and mouth ill-defined...