Vanderbilt University: (hat tip, Dave Carlson, ESCONI Discussion Group)

In the period just before they went extinct, the American lions and saber-toothed cats that roamed North America in the late Pleistocene were living well off the fat of the land.

That is the conclusion of the latest study of the microscopic wear
patterns on the teeth of these great cats recovered from the La Brea tar
pits in southern California. Contrary to previous studies, the analysis
did not find any indications that the giant carnivores were having
increased trouble finding prey in the period before they went extinct
12,000 years ago.

The results, published on Dec. 26 in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, contradicts previous dental studies and presents a problem …