Smilodon fatalis

 Smilodon fatalis, more broadly known as “the sabertooth tiger”, was a large felid hyper-carnivore relatively common across North and Central America towards the end of the Pleistocene. This big cat was approximately the size of the extant African lion but had a much greater body mass do to its more robust musculature. Much of this muscle was located in smilodon’s forequarters powering a set of massive shoulders and strong front limbs as well as a muscular neck. These neck muscles assisted in the operation of smilodon’s most iconic and recognizable feature, its long blade-like upper canine teeth. Soft tissue of these animals has never been recovered so we must speculate on much of this animal’s life appearance using as references big cats alive today that live in similar environments.

When creating this sculpture I tried something I had never done before. I used a Smilodon fatalis skull cast as an internal armature. Major muscle groups were sculpted in their appropriate locations on the skull with other soft tissues such as the eyes, nose shape and size, whisker pads and lips added over the muscles. Its integument and coat was then added over the soft tissues. 

I’ve also tried something a little different in regard to the eyes. In all my previous sculptures I have never sculpted the detail of the pupil or iris, for smilodon I did. The intensity of smilodon’s gaze really couldn’t be achieved without it. In one of the smilodon resin casts I placed glass taxidermy “tiger” eyes to impart the sculpture with an intense focus. For the bronze castings I featured a darkened central iris to elicit this same visual intensity.