Thylacosmilus

Thylacosmilus is a genus of saber-toothed metatherian that inhabited South America from the Late Miocene to Pliocene epochs. Though Thylacosmilus is one of several predatory mammal genera typically called "saber-toothed cats", it was not a felid placentalian, like the well-known North American Smilodon, but a sparassodont, a group closely related to marsupials, and only superficially resembled other saber-toothed mammals due to convergent evolution. A 2005 study found that the bite forces of Thylacosmilus and Smilodon were low, which indicates the killing-techniques of saber-toothed animals differed from those of extant species. Remains of Thylacosmilushave been found primarily in Catamarca, Entre Ríos, and La Pampa Provinces in northern Argentina.[1]