These days in Iowa about the most fearsome creatures we encounter are feisty gray squirrels and the occasional badger (I was once chased by a groundhog!). But Iowa used to be a lot scarier not that long ago, geologically speaking.
Recently, Matthew Hill, Associate Professor of archaeology at Iowa State University and David Easteria, Professor Emeritus of biology from Northwest Missouri State University released details of their findings on the 2017 discovery of a saber-toothed cat skull uncovered in Page County, near the East Nishnabotna River.
“The skull is a really big deal,” Hill told Chris Oberholtz of Fox Weather. “This skull …is in near-perfect condition” –except for the fact that one of its giant saber teeth is broken off. In fact, a saber-toothed cat skull this complete has never before been found east of the Los Angeles Tar Pits. And don’t let the name “cat” give you the wrong impression. Dr. Hill says this one probably weighed around 550 pounds—or about 100 pounds more than an African lion. Radiocarbon dating showed it died at the end of the Ice Age, around 13,500 years ago, making it one of the last of its kind in North America. The unique skull takes its place in Iowa’s pre-history, along side the 2022 discovery of an 11-pound mammoth tooth found in Sheldon, now on display at the Sheldon Prairie Museum.
The saber-toothed cat was an apex predator, hunting giant sloths, bison and even smaller mammoths. It was a savage-looking beast with its seven-inch long canines and its ability to open its jaws an astonishing 130 degrees, twice as much as modern cats. And speaking of cats, it is speculated that the saber-toothed cats may have gone extinct partly because, like house cats, they were picky eaters and when the other large herbivores went extinct, they didn’t know what else to eat.
Another theory of their extinction is that the newly-arrived humans ate all the big animals. And did the saber-tooths eat humans? Dr. Hill speculates that there might have been such interactions. “It’s possible—I would say probable.”
Page County, Iowa is 535 square miles across with a total population, a paltry 15,197. Clarinda, the county seat has only 5,369 people. That’s not to say Page County’s population never recovered from pre-historic interactions with its saber-toothed cats, but it does make you think.
Page County was named after Captain John Page who was killed at the Battle of Palo Alto in the Mexican-American War of 1846. Mexico considered it still owned Texas and when Mexican General Mariano Arista crossed the Rio Grande, “Old Rough and Ready” General Zachary Taylor ordered the 4th Infantry, including Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and John B. Page to attack. Although vastly outnumbered, Taylor’s forces were better trained and better equipped than their Mexican counterparts. Mexican gunpowder was so poor that often their cannon balls just bounced along the ground, requiring American soldiers to merely step out of the way.
However, one cannon ball directly hit Captain Page, witnessed by Grant who wrote that the shot had “broke in the roof of Capt. Page’s mouth and notched the under Jaw entirely away…. The under jaw is gone to the wind pipe and the tongue hangs down upon the throat.” Incredibly, Page lived another three months, winning the sympathy of the entire nation and a county in Iowa to be named his honor.
I guess we should be grateful that Iowa is a peaceful place right now. But I still get an uneasy feeling, looking at the long front teeth of those gray squirrels.