Saber-Toothed Cat Remains Found Near Las Vegas

For over a decade, paleontologists gambled on finding fossils in the hills north of Las Vegas, Nev. Now they're reporting that their work has yielded a big payoff — the bones of a saber-toothed cat.

"I hate to say we hit the jackpot, this being Vegas — but we did!" Eric Scott, curator of paleontology at the San Bernardino County Museum in California, told the Highland News. "Meat-eaters are generally uncommon in the fossil record. This makes fossil remains of extinct carnivores very rare and special — and very tough to find."

Recent studies have suggested the carnivores may have feasted on early humans, as well as other prey. It's also possible their extinction was caused in part by climate change.

While paleontologists working in the southern Nevada area had found the teeth and bones of mammoths, camels, horses and bison, remains of the saber-toothed cats remained elusive, which makes this finding important.

"We’re ecstatic," Kathleen Springer, senior curator for the San Bernardino County Museum, told the Highland News. "We've been saying for years that these critters were out here, somewhere. It was just a matter of time until we found one."

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Marc Lallanilla has been a science writer and health editor at About.com and a producer with ABCNews.com. His freelance writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and TheWeek.com. Marc has a Master's degree in environmental planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin.