LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 soo, im currently trying to reconstruct some pleistocene fauna (mainly felines for now) and i have almost no problem with anatomy, muscles and such, but i do have a problem recreating the fur color, pattern and length. im currently working on the smilodon populator, and i really have no idea what to paint it, in one side, it was a south american cat, all modern cats that distribute the area are spotted and yellowish colored (ocelot, jaguar). but on the other side, it lived in the savannah, which "allows" all kind of fur patterns (plain/lion, spotted/leopard, etc). and it was a realtive of smilodon fatalis, which lived in north america. there are no remains of fur and no cave drawings of smilodon from what i have found, so if anyone knows any articles which comes up with speculations about this kind of stuff please link them here, im also having a hard time founding pictures of animal skeletons in a neutral pose (standing still) so if there is a collection of these kind of images i'd love to know about it thank you very much and sorry for bad english. i'm not sure if ive put the thread on the right forum so let me know if i made a mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 There is a recent article that came out about 2 frozen baby Cave lions found, I believe in Russia. There is a pic on line, if you search the web you will find it. This will at least show you the color of the cubs fur and you can go from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 thank you! iv'e actually already seen the two frozen cubs but russia and south america are very diefferent places in the foilage and land and animals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Welcome to The Forum. I've moved your topic to the Paleo Re-creations subforum. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruitbat Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Figuring out the color (fur, scales, skin, etc.) for extinct animals is always a matter of pure conjecture except in the rare cases where the soft tissue is actually preserved with the color intact. As far as Smilodon populator is concerned, if it was indeed a savannah-dwelling cat then you might want to use extant analogs (lion, puma) as a starting point. If some of the current thinking about smilodontids in general is correct, then the saber-toothed cats were likely 'ambush hunters', which would suggest that camouflage was at a premium for them to hunt successfully. If it were me...I would probably go with a lion-like coloration since they are probably the closest in habit to S. populator. By the way...Puma concolor (puma, mountain lion, etc.) is also found in the area previously inhabited by S. populator. All that being said, you could also reasonably justify a pattern of spots or stripes if you chose to do so. -Joe 1 Illigitimati non carborundum Fruitbat's PDF Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 7 hours ago, JohnJ said: Welcome to The Forum. I've moved your topic to the Paleo Re-creations subforum. thanks! 4 hours ago, Fruitbat said: Figuring out the color (fur, scales, skin, etc.) for extinct animals is always a matter of pure conjecture except in the rare cases where the soft tissue is actually preserved with the color intact. As far as Smilodon populator is concerned, if it was indeed a savannah-dwelling cat then you might want to use extant analogs (lion, puma) as a starting point. If some of the current thinking about smilodontids in general is correct, then the saber-toothed cats were likely 'ambush hunters', which would suggest that camouflage was at a premium for them to hunt successfully. If it were me...I would probably go with a lion-like coloration since they are probably the closest in habit to S. populator. By the way...Puma concolor (puma, mountain lion, etc.) is also found in the area previously inhabited by S. populator. All that being said, you could also reasonably justify a pattern of spots or stripes if you chose to do so. -Joe thanks you! this was really usefull, this is the current sketch of the colors attached here if your interested. btw, for some reason it doesnt show replies on the forum for me, "notify me of replies" is turned on, but it only sends a massage in email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenBoy Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I agree with Fruitbat, where no concise evidence is available from the fossil record you can only really have an educated guess. But factoring in what is known about prehistoric extinct felines and modern felines that potentially fill a similar evolutionary role in a similar environment you should get close, If the anatomy suggests an ambush hunter rather than a long distance sprinter you would assume it had adequate camouflage for its terrain. It would also be of interest to look at what it hunted or scavenged and if it was primarily solitary or hunted in family units. Recently there have been some documentaries on lion prides suggesting some rarely expend the energy hunting when they can just bully/steal an other predators kill, and if that's the case over time camouflage would be less important than brute strength, so maybe looking at the evolutionary history of the beast would help. But hey without any proof all we can say is it may have been pink with green & purple spots. Also I would love to buy a one-off sketch like the one above, do you sell them? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 (edited) umm, first of all thanks (i guess its a compliment) im not really selling them but i can give you a free one/sell you one depending on what animal it is. smilodon fatalis was almost 100% a pride member, it can be seen in healed injuries, so either they lived in a pack or they were half wolverine XD so since smilodon populator was the closest relative to fatalis it probably lived in packs as well, there havnt been seen alot of healed injuries fr4om what i know but this is because there are'nt alot of fossils in general of smilodon populator. smilodon populator probably hunted animals like macrauchenia, toxodon and megatherium (giant sloth), so mainly large and slow moving animals. the evolutionery tree of smilodon is far from any living feline so i cant really see what's he's closesty relative. thanks for the advice. btw, ive decided to base the smilodon pattern on a juvenile lion's one, which is basically like a normal lioness but with larrge light spots. Edited December 15, 2016 by LeonelSaberTooth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 new update, scrapped the previous sketch's colors and repainted it, looks very similiar though, got into detail on the head, gave him some marks near the eyes that look like leopards marks but are lighter, i did that because according to some articles, primitive lions had spots much like the leopard, but they began to fade away with generations. i gave him blue eyes just for asthetics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTrilobite Posted December 16, 2016 Share Posted December 16, 2016 Lookin very nice. Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 16, 2016 Author Share Posted December 16, 2016 thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS Ammonite Posted December 16, 2016 Share Posted December 16, 2016 LeonelSaberTooth nice drawing so far. Welcome to the Forum. If you don't want to sell a drawing why don't you put one up for auction to benefit the Fossil Forum. It's a great way to start a hobby or career and will let you know what people will pay. Show us your finished result. We have had other budding artists display their art on the Fossil Forum. My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned. See my Arizona Paleontology Guide link The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 16, 2016 Author Share Posted December 16, 2016 3 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said: LeonelSaberTooth nice drawing so far. Welcome to the Forum. If you don't want to sell a drawing why don't you put one up for auction to benefit the Fossil Forum. It's a great way to start a hobby or career and will let you know what people will pay. Show us your finished result. We have had other budding artists display their art on the Fossil Forum. thank you, i do want to sell drawings but i don't want to sell the ones that i plan to use in the future (for example the one this thread is about), i am new to digital drawing as well as to this forum so its hard for me to understand, if you will explain what you mean more simple ill be very thankfull BTW continued working on the head Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenBoy Posted December 16, 2016 Share Posted December 16, 2016 Your work is looking good, and from what I've heard about Smilodon it is a logical choice to go with based on its environment. Do you mind if I ask what got you into this field of artistic reconstruction? I have found this topic truly fascinating and wish you all the best in this and future endeavours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 16, 2016 Author Share Posted December 16, 2016 thank you! well ive allways loved animals and my favorite one was the tiger, one time i found a book at my school's library showing a now very innacurate smilodon (basically a bengal tiger with 20 inch fangs) and i was absolutely mind blown, and i guess that the frenchise "ice age" helped bring me into the field as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 16, 2016 Author Share Posted December 16, 2016 well i guess im done with the smilodon populator, im really proud of it because its my first reconstruction on my tablet! id love ot hear comments about the art and the scientific facts that i might have gotten wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted December 17, 2016 Share Posted December 17, 2016 Looks really good!! Thanks for sharing it here. Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossil-Hound Posted December 17, 2016 Share Posted December 17, 2016 Beautiful Angustidens. Great finds. Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonelSaberTooth Posted December 17, 2016 Author Share Posted December 17, 2016 allright now its completely done XD im thinking the next animal will be either an arctotherium or panthera atrox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted December 18, 2016 Share Posted December 18, 2016 Very nice!! Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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