Sabertooth tigers weren't pets, but they may have made a sound similar to a purr.

Have you ever wondered what sabertooth tigers sounded like? Were they more like roaring lions or purring cats?

A new study investigating the extinct big cat Smilodon fatalis suggests that it is more likely that they purred than roared. Although cats alive today are either pantherine ‘big cats’ who roar, or Felinae ‘little cats’ who purr, sabertooth tigers split off the cat family tree long before either of these other modern groups did.

Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, explains that the debate over what kind of vocalisation sabertooth tigers made relies on analysing the anatomy of a handful of tiny bones located in the throat. Lions roar, but their anatomy is more closely related to domestic cats than sabertooth tigers. In modern cat species, whether they purr or roar is thought to be related to the number of hyoid bones in the throat. While vocalisation is driven by the larynx and soft tissue in the throat, cats that roar have been found to have seven hyoid bones linked together, and purring cats have nine. Humans have just one.

Surprisingly, the team found that the sabertooths only have seven bones like roaring cats, but the shape and size of the hyoid bones are distinct. Some of them are shaped more like those of purring cats, but much bigger. This suggests that the sabertooth tiger may have purred, but perhaps in a more husky tone. Furthermore, the bones lower down the hyoid structure more closely resemble those of modern small cats, further supporting the suggestion that they purred.

The researchers also considered the possibility that sabertooth tigers may have made an entirely new sound. They found that despite what history has told us about the number of bones in the hyoid structure, no one has validated the significance of that difference. Due to the fact that the sabertooths have things in common with both roaring and purring cats, there could even be a completely different vocalisation.

So, while we may never know for certain what sound sabertooth tigers made, the study published in the Journal of Morphology has certainly given us a better insight into this prehistoric creature.

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