Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Saber-toothed cats might not be extinct, and tonight the curator of vertebrae pathology for the University of Kansas Natural History Museum will address the possibility that the iconic Ice Age animal had more than nine lives.
In his 38 years of research, Larry D. Martin, a world expert on saber-toothed carnivores, discovered the possibility that instead of remaining extinct, the cats morphed into different species. Martin said the lecture, which is the first of a series titled “Wild Science,” was intended to re-educate people about extinction.
“Saber-toothed cats have become extinct and re-evolved, maybe as many as nine times,” Martin said. “There has been a whole series of originations of saber-tooth cats, and most of the time they don’t even look like cats.”
Saber-toothed cats, with their sharp fangs and prowling physique, are some of the most familiar mammals from the Cenozoic period, more commonly known as the last Ice Age. Martin said the cats appeared more than once throughout history, morphing and evolving several times.
He said these metamorphoses, called ecomorphs, suggested that entirely new species could originate from adaptations of an extinct animal. These ecomorphs, according to Martin, are not isolated incidences, but are repeated patterns through history.
Martin said the saber-toothed cat was the perfect example of an ecomorphed species because of how well-spaced the new species were through time. One cause of this morphing was the animal’s inability to learn from the past and adapt accordingly.
“Humans are a curious species in one particular thing, and that is that we wonder about things that have no apparent value,” Martin said. “What we do is we go out and we collect useless knowledge and store it away, and when the world changes we will make this knowledge useful. Other species have to start from scratch.”
In a report on ecomorphing published in the German journal Natur Wissenschaften, Martin said, it was reported that another cause of the phenomenon was climatic change. For example, after one species dies out because of the inability to adapt to a new climate, another similar species evolves with the biological tools to succeed where the other failed.
Amanda Falk, Milan, Mich., graduate student, helped with Martin’s research and said she thought students should be more aware of the work of paleontologists such as Martin at the Natural History Museum.
“What he is talking about is extinction and re-evolution,” Falk said. “You don’t get that kind of controversial exposure anywhere else.”
According to a U.S. News report, the University’s paleontology program is ranked sixth in the nation.
Desui Miao, collection manager at the Museum, said that prestige was partly due to Martin’s work.
“People all over the world will call us if they have a question about vertebrae paleontology,” Miao said.
According to the department of paleontology’s Web site, Martin has unearthed more than 200,000 fossils. He has written two books and nearly 400 articles on various topics.
Martin’s hour-long talk will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Dyche Hall.
— - Edited by Mary Sorrick
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