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Description
At a forest edge in the chilly steppe environment of Pleistocene Patagonia, a male Panthera onca mesembrina makes a catch. Having been caught in the open in an ambush, the juvenile Mylodon struggles and wails in distress as the jaguar bites into it's back with crushing jaws. Unfortunately for the youngster, the parents fled in the chaos of the attack, and he has little chance of escape now. Broken twigs and marks on the ground show that even this massive cat had quite the struggle attempting to haul the hefty young ground sloth into the brush.

Panthera onca mesembrina was a jaguar that lived in Patagonia during the Pleistocene. It was one of (if not the absolute) biggest jaguars in prehistory, with estimates putting it on average being as big as young male lions and with a skull bigger then one, with males on the larger end of the spectrum being as robust and muscular as big tigers. This size is likely due to the absence of Smilodon populator from most of Patagonia, allowing the resident jaguars to grow to very large sizes and occupy the apex predator niche of the region. Being so large, it likely preyed upon anything in the area, including ground sloths and equids, using the jaguar characterstic skull-puncturing bite on certain prey items.

I was actually inspired to do this piece by a video I saw of a jaguar ambushing a capybara and dragging it up the riverbank by the back of it's neck/head. I imagined something similar could happen with mesembrina and certain prey like young ground sloths in the cold steppes of Patagonia.

Description
At a forest edge in the chilly steppe environment of Pleistocene Patagonia, a male Panthera onca mesembrina makes a catch. Having been caught in the open in an ambush, the juvenile Mylodon struggles and wails in distress as the jaguar bites into it's back with crushing jaws. Unfortunately for the youngster, the parents fled in the chaos of the attack, and he has little chance of escape now. Broken twigs and marks on the ground show that even this massive cat had quite the struggle attempting to haul the hefty young ground sloth into the brush.

Panthera onca mesembrina was a jaguar that lived in Patagonia during the Pleistocene. It was one of (if not the absolute) biggest jaguars in prehistory, with estimates putting it on average being as big as young male lions and with a skull bigger then one, with males on the larger end of the spectrum being as robust and muscular as big tigers. This size is likely due to the absence of Smilodon populator from most of Patagonia, allowing the resident jaguars to grow to very large sizes and occupy the apex predator niche of the region. Being so large, it likely preyed upon anything in the area, including ground sloths and equids, using the jaguar characterstic skull-puncturing bite on certain prey items.

I was actually inspired to do this piece by a video I saw of a jaguar ambushing a capybara and dragging it up the riverbank by the back of it's neck/head. I imagined something similar could happen with mesembrina and certain prey like young ground sloths in the cold steppes of Patagonia.