How did Sabertooth went extinct?

Saber-toothed cats, particularly Smilodon, went extinct around 10,000 years ago, coinciding with the end of the Pleistocene epoch and a major extinction event. This extinction is linked to several factors, including the disappearance of their large herbivore prey due to climate change, human hunting, and potential competition with other predators.

Saber-toothed cats, including Smilodon, roamed the Earth from the Eocene epoch through the Pleistocene epoch (56 million to 11,700 years ago).

The extinction of Smilodon and other saber-toothed cats occurred as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event, which also saw the disappearance of many other large animals across the Americas around 13,000 to 9,000 years ago.

Possible Causes:

Prey Extinction: A significant factor in the extinction was the decline of large herbivorous animals, such as mammoths and mastodons, which were the primary prey of Smilodon.

Climate Change: The changing climate and vegetation patterns at the end of the Pleistocene epoch impacted the populations of these large herbivores, leading to the decline of their prey and the extinction of their predators.

Human Hunting: Humans also played a role in the extinction of these animals, as they hunted both the prey and the predators.

Competition: Some researchers suggest that competition with other predators, such as dire wolves, may have also contributed to the extinction of Smilodon.

Fossil evidence suggests that Smilodon may have lived in packs, similar to modern lions.

Besides Smilodon, other sabertooth species, such as Nimravidae, also went extinct during the same period, though some groups, like the Nimravidae, went extinct earlier.