At the Museum of Nature and Humankind, the saber-toothed tiger becomes a plush toy

The famous saber-toothed tiger, Smilodon fatalis, star of the exhibition at the Museum of Nature and Humankind of the University of Padua and the only specimen of the species preserved in Italy, is now a collectible plush toy. Soft, carefully detailed, and made with RPET padding obtained from recycled bottle plastic, the new plush toy is available at the Museum bookshop and at the UNIPD Store in Palazzo del Bo in Padua.

Inspired by the celebrated specimen displayed in the Gallery of Large Vertebrates, the plush toy pays tribute to an authentic icon of the Ice Age. The composite skeleton preserved in Padua comes from the Rancho La Brea site in Los Angeles (California, USA), one of the most important fossil sites in the world for the quantity and variety of species recovered, and arrived in the city in 1933 thanks to an exchange with the University of Berkeley promoted by Professor Giorgio Dal Piaz.

The genus Smilodon lived in the Americas about two million years ago. The distinctive feature of this large feline is its enormously developed canine teeth, which made it a fearsome predator. It probably lived in packs and could hunt large herbivores, such as mammoths, although it may also have fed on carcasses. More than two meters long, about 1.20 meters tall at the shoulder, and weighing up to 300 kilograms, it still fascinates visitors of all ages today.

The new plush toy is an original way to take home a piece of the natural history preserved by the University of Padua, combining science communication, sustainability, and a special memory of a visit to the Museum.