Saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis)
1 m (3.281 ft)
Shoulder height
The Ice Age cat of the La Brea tar pits. Measured at the shoulder. About 1 m at the shoulder: shorter than a male lion.
Published
How big is that?
1 m is 3.4 times an A4 sheet and 57% of an adult man.
Saber-toothed cat is the 3rd smallest of the 31 Prehistoric Giants objects, and the 23rd smallest of the 109 objects across all three SizeItUp games.
Closest in size from the other games: Bowling pin (Ten-pin) (Classic), 38.1 cm tall and Perseverance (Mars rover) (Cosmic Scale), 3 m long.
Size comparison
To scale, smallest to largest: Saber-toothed cat in orange beside the Prehistoric Giants objects nearest in size, in teal.
| Object | Size | vs Saber-toothed cat |
|---|---|---|
| ArchaeopteryxThe Jurassic feathered dinosaur often called the first bird, measured nose to tail. | 50 cm long | 50% of the size |
| DodoThe flightless bird of Mauritius, extinct since the late 1600s. | 70 cm tall | 70% of the size |
| Saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) | 1 m tall | – |
| Lion (Adult male)Today's big-cat benchmark, measured at the shoulder. | 1.2 m tall | 1.2× bigger |
| Polar bear (Adult male)The largest land carnivore alive today, measured at the shoulder. | 1.52 m tall | 1.5× bigger |
In other units
| Centimetres | 100 |
|---|---|
| Metres | 1 |
| Inches | 39.37 |
| Feet | 3.281 |
| Yards | 1.094 |
How it's measured
Shoulder height. San Diego Natural History Museum.
Four-legged animals are measured at the shoulder, which stays put while the head moves.
Sources
- sdnhm.org: It stood about 40 inches (100 cm) high at shoulder.
Checked against the source on .
Could you have guessed it by eye?
Saber-toothed cat is one of the objects in Prehistoric Giants, a daily size comparison game: you stretch a shape to the size you think is right beside one you know.