They’re not really saber-tooths, and they’re not really cats, but they’re related. They’re Nimravids, and researchers have discovered they fought one another viciously. These creatures now have an exhibit all to themselves at the Museum of Geology at the School of Mines and Technology. For today’s Dakota Digest, SDPB’s Victoria Wicks talks with two scientists about the mysteries exposed when fossils are uncovered.
Fossil Preparation Tells Story Of Ancient Violence
1 of
Mindy Householder and Clint Boyd put together the Nimravid exhibit for the Museum of Geology at SDSMT
Victoria Wicks
2 of
The blue arrow points to a puncture wound in the skull of a Hoplophoneus, part of the exhibit at the Museum of Geology.
Victoria Wicks
3 of
This case in the Museum of Geology contains fossils of Nimravids and related creatures.
Victoria Wicks
4 of
One of two Dinictis skulls that show puncture wounds, indicating to scientists that Nimravids attacked the head and face of enemies. Dinictis is a genus of the Nimravidae family.
Victoria Wicks
5 of
This is an under-construction view of the cast built by Mindy Householder of the Hoplophoneus found in the Badlands in 2010 by a seven-year-old girl from Georgia.
Victoria Wicks
6 of
Some of the fossils before they're moved to the Museum of Geology. At center is the skull of a Smilodon, a true saber-toothed cat. Nimravids, which lived long before saber-toothed cats, are distantly related but are not true cats.
Victoria Wicks
