{"id":1212,"date":"2023-08-21T11:47:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T15:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/2023\/08\/21\/did-sabertooth-tigers-purr-or-roar\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T01:25:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T05:25:59","slug":"did-sabertooth-tigers-purr-or-roar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/2023\/08\/21\/did-sabertooth-tigers-purr-or-roar\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Sabertooth Tigers Purr or Roar?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

For Immediate Release<\/h2>\n
Tracey Peake<\/span>tracey_peake@ncsu.edu<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Adam Hartstone-Rose<\/span>adamhrose@ncsu.edu<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Ashley Deutsch<\/span>adeutsc@ncsu.edu<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

When a sabertooth tiger called out, what noise did it make \u2013 a mighty roar or a throaty purr? A new study from North Carolina State University examined the data behind the arguments for each vocalization and found that the answer was more nuanced than they thought \u2013 and that it could depend on the shape of a few small bones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern cats belong to one of two groups: either the pantherine \u201cbig cats,\u201d including the roaring lions, tigers and jaguars; or Felinae \u201clittle cats,\u201d which include purring cats like lynxes, cougars, ocelots and domestic cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvolutionarily speaking, sabertooths split off the cat family tree before these other modern groups did,\u201d says Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at NC State and corresponding author of the research. \u201cThis means that lions are more closely related to housecats than either are to sabertooths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s important because the debate over the kind of vocalization a sabertooth tiger would have made relies upon analyzing the anatomy of a handful of tiny bones located in the throat,\u201d Hartstone-Rose says. \u201cAnd the size, shape and number of those bones differ between modern roaring and purring cats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although vocalization is driven by the larynx and soft tissue in the throat, not bones, anatomists noticed that the bones responsible for anchoring those tissues in place \u2013 the hyoid bones \u2013 differed in size and number between roaring and purring cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile humans have only one hyoid bone, purring cats have nine bones linked together in a chain and roaring cats have seven,\u201d says Ashley Deutsch, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of the research. \u201cThe missing bones are located toward the top of the hyoid structure near where it connects to the skull.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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