Be a Paleontologist!

Today students had a chance to be a paleontologist and discover how tricky it can be to interpret fossil evidence when you don't have a complete picture. After a great display of teamwork, students discovered that they were looking at the bones of a Xenosmilus.

"From the partial skeletons found in Florida, Xenosmilus has been found to have the short, broad upper canines of the Scimitar tooth cats and the robust short legged build of the Dirk tooth cats. Xenosmilus was about the size of a modern lion, and more muscular than the Smilodon species. It is assumed that Xenosmilus preyed upon wild pigs, for several skeletons of this type were found in the cave deposits along with the cats." Read more here. This lesson came from UCMP Berkeley.

Homework: none :)