Robin's Great Coloring Pages: Smilodon & Prehistoric Bison

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Today I drew another, more accurate Smilodon fatalis, the saber tooth cat. I think I said previously that an artist never completes a work of art, we just abandon it. I was never happy with the Smilodon I drew a few days ago...and I just abandoned it. I thought I could do better. I wanted a Smilodon fatalis coloring page drawing to be more similar to my detailed colored drawing that I posted with the coloring page drawing. I think you will be pleased with the results. I also drew one of the Smilodon prey species.

Smilodons were larger than any modern cat and not closely related to any living modern cat, having its own branch on the phylogenetic tree of Family: Felidae. (See my previous post on Smilodon to learn more about the size.) Paleontologists and Biologists have done experiments and analyzed the saber teeth of Smilodon and the conclusion is that the teeth were used to stab the prey. The saber teeth were not strong enough to rip through flesh of a prey animal, but they were strong enough to stab the prey in the throat etc. and kill it..or ever strong enough to stab a prey species and cause severe bleeding so Smilodon only had to wait a few minutes for the prey to bleed out and die...then Dinner! That dinner was probably larger prey like the prehistoric bison, Bison antiquus.

Bison antiquus was a huge bison, and a direct ancestor to our modern North American Bison, (commonly called buffalo). The prehistoric bison was up to 25% larger than our modern bison, and Bison antiquus had huge horns that stuck out to the sides like a Texas Longhorn cow or bull. Bison antiquus were up to 7 1/2 feet (2.27 m) tall, 15 feet (4.6 m) long, and it weighed up to 3,500 lbs (1,588 kg)!

True Story: A very young prehistoric bison calf died or was killed 11,000 years ago in Northern Utah, along what was once the shore of the ancient Lake Bonneville. (Maybe it was killed by a Smilodon.) 11,000 years later a building was being remodeled and one of the construction workers at the construction site found this bone. It is a femur or upper arm bone of a prehistoric bison calf. The bone was taken to a museum to have it identified. These types of bones are fairly common around the shores of what was once Lake Bonneville. The femur is not fossilized because it is just not that old. It takes way more than 11,000 years to fossilize or for bone etc. to turn into stone.

Prehistoric Bison, Bison antiquus, Calf Femur

You might be able to see that THIS Smilodon fatalis coloring page is much more similar to my colored pastel chalk and Prisma colored pencil drawing of Smilodon fatalis. Feel free to try and copy my coloring including stripes etc. However, you can always color it in your own way!

I hope you enjoy coloring Smilodon fatalis and its prey species Bison antiquus.