Social life of extinct sabre-toothed cat revealed by ancient DNA

Sabre-toothed cats also have thick, strong front limb bones for grappling prey, says palaeontologist Ashley Reynolds at the University of Toronto, “so it’s very interesting to see positive selection in PGD, a gene associated with bone mineralisation”.

Barnett and his colleagues found genes associated with social behaviour, too, hinting that Homotherium may have lived in groups, like lions, rather than living and hunting alone like a leopard.

“In fact,” Barnett says, “this Homotherium bone was first identified as ‘large cat/cave lion?’ before we got the DNA.”