List Price: $312.40
Sale Price: $195.72
Today's Bonus: 37% Off
We purchased this Smilodon skull as a Christmas present for our teenaged son, who loves prehistoric animals and paleontology. What a hit it is!
This is a high-quality replica. The parts are smooth and realistically shaped. The bones and teeth are (realistically) a slightly different color than the bone. The modeling is excellent. For example, the teeth are fully formed with the indents you normally would see on real teeth.
The skull is in two pieces, the lower jaw bone is separate. The stand is included. There is some minor assembly required. The lower jaw is connected like a hinge to the upper part. Then you place the top skull on the stand and the lower jaw rests against the stand's rod.
This is a realistic attitude for the saber-toothed cat. It's lower jaw could open very wide, almost twice as wide as a modern lion. It had to be able to with those canines. The longer canines were actually relatively fragile. They were used for puncturing the neck, not for crunching bones. The cat needed to be able to puncture the aorta and then open it's mouth wide enough to pull the canines out, not to mention get at the meat.
While I was searching for the Smilodon skull to purchase, I came across several sellers offering a Saber-Toothed Cat Skull that cost about half as much as this one. A close look at the photo of the skull showed why the price was lower. The cheaper skull was a full cast of the whole skull. It was rougher and there was no differentiation between bone and teeth. That doesn't make it bad. It just means that the replica that I purchased, which is made by Skullduggery, a company out of southern California, is more impressive.
A great conversation piece and a beautiful work of art!This saber tooth cat skull was all I had expected and more. It is museum quality and an excellent educational tool as well as an intriguing exhibit.
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