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Smilodon

Smilodon is a genus of felids belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae. It is one of the best known saber-toothed predators and prehistoric mammals. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats. Smilodon lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 mya – 10,000 years ago). The genus was named in 1842 based on fossils from Brazil; the generic name means "scalpel" or "two-edged knife" combined with "tooth". Three species are recognized today: S. gracilis, S. fatalis, and S. populator. The two latter species were probably descended from S. gracilis, which itself probably evolved from Megantereon. The hundreds of specimens obtained from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles constitute the largest collection of Smilodon fossils.

Overall, Smilodon was more robustly built than any extant cat, with particularly well-developed forelimbs and exceptionally long upper canine teeth. Its jaw had a bigger gape than that of modern cats, and its upper canines were slender and fragile, being adapted for precision killing. S. gracilis was the smallest species at 55 to 100 kg in weight. S. fatalis had a weight of 160 to 280 kg and height of 100 cm. Both of these species are mainly known from North America, but remains from South America have also been attributed to them. S. populator from South America was the largest species, at 220 to 436 kg in weight and 120 cm in height, and was among the largest known felids. The coat pattern of Smilodon is unknown, but it has been artistically restored with plain or spotted patterns.

In North America, Smilodon hunted large herbivores such as bison and camels, and it remained successful even when encountering new prey species in South America. Smilodon is thought to have killed its prey by holding it still with its forelimbs and biting it, but it is unclear in what manner the bite itself was delivered. Scientists debate whether Smilodon had a social or a solitary lifestyle; analysis of modern predator behavior as well as of Smilodon's fossil remains could be construed to lend support to either view. Smilodon probably lived in closed habitats such as forests and bush, which would have provided cover for ambushing prey. Smilodon died out at the same time that most North and South American megafauna disappeared, about 10,000 years ago. Its reliance on large animals has been proposed as the cause of its extinction. S. fatalis may have been impacted by habitat turnover and loss of prey it specialized on due to possible climatic plus anthropogenic impacts and other factors while the extinction of S. populator remains poorly understood.

Taxonomy

During the 1830s, Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund and his assistants collected fossils in the calcareous caves near the small town of Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Among the thousands of fossils found, he recognized a few isolated cheek teeth as belonging to a hyena, which he named Hyaena neogaea in 1839. After more material was found (including canine teeth and foot bones), Lund concluded the fossils instead belonged to a distinct genus of felids, though transitional to the hyenas. He stated it would have matched the largest modern predators in size, and was more robust than any modern cat. Lund originally wanted to name the new genus Hyaenodon, but realizing this had recently become preoccupied by another prehistoric predator, he instead named it Smilodon populator in 1842. He explained the Ancient Greek meaning of Smilodon as σμίλη (smilē), "scalpel" or "two-edged knife", and οδόντος (odóntos), "tooth". This has also been translated as "tooth shaped like double-edged knife". He explained the species name populator as "the destroyer", which has also been translated as "he who brings devastation". By 1846, Lund had acquired nearly every part of the skeleton (from different individuals), and more specimens were found in neighboring countries by other collectors in the following years. Though some later authors used Lund's original species name neogaea instead of populator, it is now considered an invalid nomen nudum, as it was not accompanied with a proper description and no type specimens were designated. Some South American specimens have been referred to other genera, subgenera, species, and subspecies, such as Smilodontidion riggii, Smilodon (Prosmilodon) ensenadensis, and S. bonaeriensis, but these are now thought to be junior synonyms of S. populator.

Fossils of Smilodon were discovered in North America from the second half of the 19th century onwards. In 1869, American paleontologist Joseph Leidy described a maxilla fragment with a molar, which had been discovered in a petroleum bed in Hardin County, Texas. He referred the specimen to the genus Felis (which was then used for most cats, extant as well as extinct) but found it distinct enough to be part of its own subgenus, as F. (Trucifelis) fatalis. The species name means "deadly". In an 1880 article about extinct American cats, American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope pointed out that the F. fatalis molar was identical to that of Smilodon, and he proposed the new combination S. fatalis. Most North American finds were scanty until excavations began in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, where hundreds of individuals of S. fatalis have been found since 1875. S. fatalis has junior synonyms such as S. mercerii, S. floridanus, and S. californicus. American paleontologist Annalisa Berta considered the holotype of S. fatalis too incomplete to be an adequate type specimen, and the species has at times been proposed to be a junior synonym of S. populator. Nordic paleontologists Björn Kurtén and Lars Werdelin supported the distinctness of the two species in an article published in 1990. A 2018 article by the American paleontologist John P. Babiarz and colleagues concluded that S. californicus, represented by the specimens from the La Brea Tar Pits, was a distinct species from S. fatalis after all and that more research is needed to clarify the taxonomy of the lineage.

In his 1880 article about extinct cats, Cope also named a third species of Smilodon, S. gracilis. The species was based on a partial canine, which had been obtained in the Port Kennedy Cave near the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania. Cope found the canine to be distinct from that of the other Smilodon species due to its smaller size and more compressed base. Its specific name refers to the species' lighter build. This species is known from fewer and less complete remains than the other members of the genus. S. gracilis has at times been considered part of genera such as Megantereon and Ischyrosmilus. S. populator, S. fatalis and S. gracilis are currently considered the only valid species of Smilodon, and features used to define most of their junior synonyms have been dismissed as variation between individuals of the same species (intraspecific variation). One of the most famous of prehistoric mammals, Smilodon has often been featured in popular media and is the state fossil of California.

Evolution

Long the most completely known saber-toothed cat, Smilodon is still one of the best-known members of the group, to the point where the two concepts have been confused. The term "saber-tooth" itself refers to an ecomorph consisting of various groups of extinct predatory synapsids (mammals and close relatives), which convergently evolved extremely long maxillary canines, as well as adaptations to the skull and skeleton related to their use. This includes members of Gorgonopsia, Thylacosmilidae, Machaeroidinae, Nimravidae, Barbourofelidae, and Machairodontinae. Within the family Felidae (true cats), members of the subfamily Machairodontinae are referred to as saber-toothed cats, and this group is itself divided into three tribes: Metailurini (false saber-tooths); Homotherini (scimitar-toothed cats); and Smilodontini (dirk-toothed cats), to which Smilodon belongs. Members of Smilodontini are defined by their long slender canines with fine to no serrations, whereas Homotherini are typified by shorter, broad, and more flattened canines, with coarser serrations. Members of Metailurini were less specialized and had shorter, less flattened canines, and are not recognized as members of Machairodontinae by some researchers.

The earliest felids are known from the Oligocene of Europe, such as Proailurus, and the earliest one with saber-tooth features is the Miocene genus Pseudaelurus. The skull and mandible morphology of the earliest saber-toothed cats was similar to that of the modern clouded leopards (Neofelis). The lineage further adapted to the precision killing of large animals by developing elongated canine teeth and wider gapes, in the process sacrificing high bite force. As their canines became longer, the bodies of the cats became more robust for immobilizing prey. In derived smilodontins and homotherins, the lumbar region of the spine and the tail became shortened, as did the hind limbs. Based on mitochondrial DNA sequences extracted from fossils, the lineages of Homotherium and Smilodon are estimated to have diverged about 18 Ma ago.

The earliest species of Smilodon is S. gracilis, which existed from 2.5 million to 500,000 years ago (early Blancan to Irvingtonian ages) and was the successor in North America of Megantereon, from which it probably evolved. Megantereon itself had entered North America from Eurasia during the Pliocene, along with Homotherium. S. gracilis reached the northern regions of South America in the Early Pleistocene as part of the Great American Interchange. S. fatalis existed 1.6 million–10,000 years ago (late Irvingtonian to Rancholabrean ages), and replaced S. gracilis in North America. S. populator existed 1 million–10,000 years ago (Ensenadan to Lujanian ages); it occurred in the eastern parts of South America.

Despite the colloquial name "saber-toothed tiger", Smilodon is not closely related to the modern tiger (which belongs in the subfamily Pantherinae), or any other extant felid. A 1992 ancient DNA analysis suggested that Smilodon should be grouped with modern cats (subfamilies Felinae and Pantherinae). A 2005 study found that Smilodon belonged to a separate lineage. A study published in 2006 confirmed this, showing that the Machairodontinae diverged early from the ancestors of modern cats and were not closely related to any living species. The following cladogram based on fossils and DNA analysis shows the placement of Smilodon among extinct and extant felids, after Rincón and colleagues, 2011:

Skeleton
Smilodon was around the size of modern big cats, but was more robustly built. It had a reduced lumbar region, high scapula, short tail, and broad limbs with relatively short feet. Smilodon is most famous for its relatively long canine teeth, which are the longest found in the saber-toothed cats, at about 28 cm long in the largest species, S.populator. The canines were slender and had fine serrations on the front and back side. The skull was robustly proportioned and the muzzle was short and broad. The cheek bones (zygomata) were deep and widely arched, the sagittal crest was prominent, and the frontal region was slightly convex. The mandible had a flange on each side of the front. The upper incisors were large, sharp, and slanted forwards. There was a diastema (gap) between the incisors and molars of the mandible. The lower incisors were broad, recurved, and placed in a straight line across. The p3 premolar tooth of the mandible was present in most early specimens, but lost in later specimens; it was only present in 6% of the La Brea sample. There is some dispute over whether Smilodon was sexually dimorphic. Some studies of S. fatalis fossils have found little difference between the sexes. Conversely, a 2012 study found that, while fossils of S. fatalis show less variation in size among individuals than modern Panthera, they do appear to show the same difference between the sexes in some traits.

S. gracilis was the smallest species, estimated at 55 to 100 kg in weight, about the size of a jaguar. It was similar to its predecessor Megantereon of the same size, but its dentition and skull were more advanced, approaching S. fatalis. S. fatalis was intermediate in size between S. gracilis and S. populator. It ranged from 160 to 280 kg. and reached a shoulder height of 100 cm and body length of 175 cm. It was similar to a lion in dimensions, but was more robust and muscular, and therefore had a larger body mass. Its skull was also similar to that of Megantereon, though more massive and with larger canines. S. populator was among the largest known felids, with a body mass range from 220 kg to over 400 kg, and one estimate suggesting up to 470 kg. A particularly large S. populator skull from Uruguay measuring 39.2 cm in length indicates this individual may have weighed as much as 436 kg. It stood at a shoulder height of 120 cm. Compared to S. fatalis, S. populator was more robust and had a more elongated and narrow skull with a straighter upper profile, higher positioned nasal bones, a more vertical occiput, more massive metapodials and slightly longer forelimbs relative to hindlimbs. Large fossil tracks from Argentina (for which the ichnotaxon name Smilodonichium has been proposed) have been attributed to S. populator, and measure 17.6 cm by 19.2 cm. This is larger than tracks of the Bengal tiger, to which the footprints have been compared.

External features
Smilodon and other saber-toothed cats have been reconstructed with both plain-colored coats and with spotted patterns (which appears to be the ancestral condition for feliforms), both of which are considered possible. Studies of modern cat species have found that species that live in the open tend to have uniform coats while those that live in more vegetated habitats have more markings, with some exceptions. Some coat features, such as the manes of male lions or the stripes of the tiger, are too unusual to predict from fossils.

Traditionally, saber-toothed cats have been artistically restored with external features similar to those of extant felids, by artists such as Charles R. Knight in collaboration with various paleontologists in the early 20th century. In 1969, paleontologist G. J. Miller instead proposed that Smilodon would have looked very different from a typical cat and similar to a bulldog, with a lower lip line (to allow its mouth to open wide without tearing the facial tissues), a more retracted nose and lower-placed ears. Paleoartist Mauricio Antón and coauthors disputed this in 1998 and maintained that the facial features of Smilodon were overall not very different from those of other cats. Antón noted that modern animals like the hippopotamus are able to open their mouths extremely wide without tearing tissue due to a folded orbicularis oris muscle, and such a muscle arrangement exists in modern large felids. Antón stated that extant phylogenetic bracketing (where the features of the closest extant relatives of a fossil taxon are used as reference) is the most reliable way of restoring the life-appearance of prehistoric animals, and the cat-like Smilodon restorations by Knight are therefore still accurate. A 2022 study by Antón and colleagues concluded that the upper canines of Smilodon would have been visible when the mouth was closed, while those of Homotherium would have not, after examining fossils and extant big cats.

Diet
An apex predator, Smilodon primarily hunted large mammals. Isotopes preserved in the bones of S. fatalis in the La Brea Tar Pits reveal that ruminants like bison (Bison antiquus, which was much larger than the modern American bison) and camels (Camelops) were most commonly taken by the cats there. Smilodon fatalis may have also occasionally preyed upon Glyptotherium, based on a skull from a juvenile Glyptotherium texanum recovered from Pleistocene deposits in Arizona that bear the distinctive elliptical puncture marks best matching those of Smilodon, indicating that the predator successfully bit into the skull through the glyptodont's armored cephalic shield. In addition, isotopes preserved in the tooth enamel of S. gracilis specimens from Florida show that this species fed on the peccary Platygonus and the llama-like Hemiauchenia. Stable carbon isotope measurements of S. gracilis remains in Florida varied significantly between different sites and show that the species was flexible in its feeding habits. Isotopic studies of dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) and American lion (Panthera atrox) bones show an overlap with S. fatalis in prey, which suggests that they were competitors. More detailed isotope analysis however, indicates that Smilodon fatalis preferred forest-dwelling prey such as tapirs, deer and forest-dwelling bison as opposed to the dire wolves' preferences for prey inhabiting open areas such as grassland. The availability of prey in the Rancho La Brea area was likely comparable to modern East Africa.

As Smilodon migrated to South America, its diet changed; bison were absent, the horses and proboscideans were different, and native ungulates such as toxodonts and litopterns were completely unfamiliar, yet S. populator thrived as well there as its relatives in North America. Isotopic analysis for S. populator suggests that its main prey species included Toxodon platensis, Pachyarmatherium, Holmesina, species of the genus Panochthus, Palaeolama, Catonyx, Equus neogeus, and the crocodilian Caiman latirostris. This analysis of its diet also indicates that S. populator hunted both in open and forested habitats. The differences between the North and South American species may be due to the difference in prey between the two continents. Smilodon may have avoided eating bone and would have left enough food for scavengers. Coprolites assigned to S. populator recovered from Argentina preserve Mylodon osteoderms and a Lama scaphoid bone. In addition to this unambiguous evidence of bone consumption, the coprolites suggest that Smilodon had a more generalist diet than previously thought. Examinations of dental microwear from La Brea further suggests that Smilodon consumed both flesh and bone. Smilodon itself may have scavenged dire wolf kills. It has been suggested that Smilodon was a pure scavenger that used its canines for display to assert dominance over carcasses, but this theory is not supported today as no modern terrestrial mammals are pure scavengers.

Predatory behavior

The brain of Smilodon had sulcal patterns similar to modern cats, which suggests an increased complexity of the regions that control the sense of hearing, sight, and coordination of the limbs. Felid saber-tooths in general had relatively small eyes that were not as forward-facing as those of modern cats, which have good binocular vision to help them move in trees. Smilodon was likely an ambush predator that concealed itself in dense vegetation, as its limb proportions were similar to modern forest-dwelling cats, and its short tail would not have helped it balance while running. Unlike its ancestor Megantereon, which was at least partially scansorial and therefore able to climb trees, Smilodon was probably completely terrestrial due to its greater weight and lack of climbing adaptations. Tracks from Argentina named Felipeda miramarensis in 2019 may have been produced by Smilodon. If correctly identified, the tracks indicate that the animal had fully retractible claws, plantigrade feet, lacked strong supination capabilities in its paws, notably robust forelimbs compared to the hindlimbs, and was probably an ambush predator.

The heel bone of Smilodon was fairly long, which suggests it was a good jumper. Its well-developed flexor and extensor muscles in its forearms probably enabled it to pull down, and securely hold down, large prey. Analysis of the cross-sections of S. fatalis humeri indicated that they were strengthened by cortical thickening to such an extent that they would have been able to sustain greater loading than those of extant big cats, or of the extinct American lion. The humerus cortical wall in S. fatalis was a 15 % thicker than excpected in modern big cats.The thickening of S. fatalis femurs was within the range of extant felids. Its canines were fragile and could not have bitten into bone; due to the risk of breaking, these cats had to subdue and restrain their prey with their powerful forelimbs before they could use their canine teeth, and likely used quick slashing or stabbing bites rather than the slow, suffocating bites typically used by modern cats. On rare occasions, as evidenced by fossils, Smilodon was willing to risk biting into bone with its canines. This may have been focused more towards competition such as other Smilodon or potential threats such as other carnivores than on prey.

Debate continues as to how Smilodon killed its prey. Traditionally, the most popular theory is that the cat delivered a deep stabbing bite or open-jawed stabbing thrust to the throat, killing the prey very quickly. Another hypothesis suggests that Smilodon targeted the belly of its prey. This is disputed, as the curvature of their prey's belly would likely have prevented the cat from getting a good bite or stab. In regard to how Smilodon delivered its bite, the "canine shear-bite" hypothesis has been favored, where flexion of the neck and rotation of the skull assisted in biting the prey, but this may be mechanically impossible. However, evidence from comparisons with Homotherium suggest that Smilodon was fully capable of and utilized the canine shear-bite as its primary means of killing prey, based on the fact that it had a thick skull and relatively little trabecular bone, while Homotherium had both more trabecular bone and a more lion-like clamping bite as its primary means of attacking prey. The discovery, made by Figueirido and Lautenschlager et al., published in 2018 suggests extremely different ecological adaptations in both machairodonts. The mandibular flanges may have helped resist bending forces when the mandible was pulled against the hide of a prey animal. It has been experimentally proven by means of a machine that recreates the teeth, and simulates the movements of jaws and neck of Smilodon fatalis (The "Robocat") on bison and elk carcasses, that the stabbing bite to the throat is a much more plausible and practical killing technique than the stabbing bite to the belly.

The protruding incisors were arranged in an arch, and were used to hold the prey still and stabilize it while the canine bite was delivered. The contact surface between the canine crown and the gum was enlarged, which helped stabilize the tooth and helped the cat sense when the tooth had penetrated to its maximum extent. Since saber-toothed cats generally had a relatively large infraorbital foramen (opening) in the skull, which housed nerves associated with the whiskers, it has been suggested the improved senses would have helped the cats' precision when biting outside their field of vision, and thereby prevent breakage of the canines. The blade-like carnassial teeth were used to cut skin to access the meat, and the reduced molars suggest that they were less adapted for crushing bones than modern cats. As the food of modern cats enters the mouth through the side while cutting with the carnassials, not the front incisors between the canines, the animals do not need to gape widely, so the canines of Smilodon would likewise not have been a hindrance when feeding. A study published in 2022 of how machairodonts fed revealed that wear patterns on the teeth of S. fatalis also suggest that it was capable of eating bone to a similar extent as lions. This and comparisons with bite marks left by the contemporary machairodont Xenosmilus suggest that Smilodon and its relatives could efficiently de-flesh a carcass of meat when feeding without being hindered by their long canines.

Despite being more powerfully built than other large cats, Smilodon had a weaker bite. Modern big cats have more pronounced zygomatic arches, while these were smaller in Smilodon, which restricted the thickness and therefore power of the temporalis muscles and thus reduced Smilodon's bite force. Analysis of its narrow jaws indicates that it could produce a bite only a third as strong as that of a lion (the bite force quotient measured for the lion is 112). There seems to be a general rule that the saber-toothed cats with the largest canines had proportionally weaker bites. Analyses of canine bending strength (the ability of the canine teeth to resist bending forces without breaking) and bite forces indicate that the saber-toothed cats' teeth were stronger relative to the bite force than those of modern big cats. In addition, Smilodon gape could have reached over 110 degrees, while that of the modern lion reaches 65 degrees. This made the gape wide enough to allow Smilodon to grasp large prey despite the long canines. A 2018 study compared the killing behavior of Smilodon fatalis and Homotherium serum, and found that the former had a strong skull with little trabecular bone for a stabbing canine-shear bite, whereas the latter had more trabecular bone and used a clamp and hold style more similar to lions. The two would therefore have held distinct ecological niches.

Natural traps

Many Smilodon specimens have been excavated from asphalt seeps that acted as natural carnivore traps. Animals were accidentally trapped in the seeps and became bait for predators that came to scavenge, but these were then trapped themselves. The best-known of such traps are at La Brea in Los Angeles, which have produced over 166,000 Smilodon fatalis specimens that form the largest collection in the world. The sediments of the pits there were accumulated 40,000 to 10,000 years ago, in the Late Pleistocene. Though the trapped animals were buried quickly, predators often managed to remove limb bones from them, but they were themselves often trapped and then scavenged by other predators; 90% of the excavated bones belonged to predators.

The Talara Tar Seeps in Peru represent a similar scenario, and have also produced fossils of Smilodon. Unlike in La Brea, many of the bones were broken or show signs of weathering. This may have been because the layers were shallower, so the thrashing of trapped animals damaged the bones of previously trapped animals. Many of the carnivores at Talara were juveniles, possibly indicating that inexperienced and less fit animals had a greater chance of being trapped. Though Lund thought accumulations of Smilodon and herbivore fossils in the Lagoa Santa Caves were due to the cats using the caves as dens, these are probably the result of animals dying on the surface, and water currents subsequently dragging their bones to the floor of the cave, but some individuals may also have died after becoming lost in the caves.

Social life

Scientists debate whether Smilodon was social. One study of African predators found that social predators like lions and spotted hyenas respond more to the distress calls of prey than solitary species. Since S. fatalis fossils are common at the La Brea Tar Pits, and were likely attracted by the distress calls of stuck prey, this could mean that this species was social as well. One critical study claims that the study neglects other factors, such as body mass (heavier animals are more likely to get stuck than lighter ones), intelligence (some social animals, like the American lion, may have avoided the tar because they were better able to recognize the hazard), lack of visual and olfactory lures, the type of audio lure, and the length of the distress calls (the actual distress calls of the trapped prey animals would have lasted longer than the calls used in the study). The author of that study ponders what predators would have responded if the recordings were played in India, where the otherwise solitary tigers are known to aggregate around a single carcass. The authors of the original study responded that though effects of the calls in the tar pits and the playback experiments would not be identical, this would not be enough to overturn their conclusions. In addition, they stated that weight and intelligence would not likely affect the results as lighter carnivores are far more numerous than heavy herbivores and the social (and seemingly intelligent) dire wolf is also found in the pits.

Another argument for sociality is based on the healed injuries in several Smilodon fossils, which would suggest that the animals needed others to provide them food. This argument has been questioned, as cats can recover quickly from even severe bone damage and an injured Smilodon could survive if it had access to water. However, a Smilodon suffering hip dysplasia at a young age that survived to adulthood suggests that it could not have survived to adulthood without aid from a social group, as this individual was unable to hunt or defend its territory due to the severity of its congenital issue. The brain of Smilodon was relatively small compared to other cat species. Some researchers have argued that Smilodon brain would have been too small for it to have been a social animal. An analysis of brain size in living big cats found no correlation between brain size and sociality. Another argument against Smilodon being social is that being an ambush hunter in closed habitat would likely have made group-living unnecessary, as in most modern cats. Yet it has also been proposed that being the largest predator in an environment comparable to the savanna of Africa, Smilodon may have had a social structure similar to modern lions, which possibly live in groups primarily to defend optimal territory from other lions (lions are the only social big cats today).

Whether Smilodon was sexually dimorphic has implications for its reproductive behavior. Based on their conclusions that Smilodon fatalis had no sexual dimorphism, Van Valkenburgh and Sacco suggested in 2002 that, if the cats were social, they would likely have lived in monogamous pairs (along with offspring) with no intense competition among males for females. Likewise, Meachen-Samuels and Binder concluded in 2010 that aggression between males was less pronounced in S. fatalis than in the American lion. Christiansen and Harris found in 2012 that, as S. fatalis did exhibit some sexual dimorphism, there would have been evolutionary selection for competition between males. Some bones show evidence of having been bitten by other Smilodon, possibly the result of territorial battles, competition for breeding rights or over prey. Two S. populator skulls from Argentina show seemingly fatal, unhealed wounds which appear to have been caused by the canines of another Smilodon (though it cannot be ruled out they were caused by kicking prey). If caused by intraspecific fighting, it may also indicate that they had social behavior which could lead to death, as seen in some modern felines (as well as indicating that the canines could penetrate bone). It has been suggested that the exaggerated canines of saber-toothed cats evolved for sexual display and competition, but a statistical study of the correlation between canine and body size in S. populator found no difference in scaling between body and canine size concluded it was more likely they evolved solely for a predatory function.

A set of three associated skeletons of S. fatalis found in Ecuador and described in 2021 by Reynolds, Seymour, and Evans suggests that there was prolonged parental care in Smilodon. The two subadult individuals uncovered share a unique inherited trait in their dentaries, suggesting they were siblings; a rare instance of familial relationships being found in the fossil record. The subadult specimens are also hypothesized to have been male and female, respectively, while the adult skeletal remains found at the site are believed to have belonged to their mother. The subadults were estimated to have been around two years of age at the time of their deaths, but were still growing. S. fatalis had proportionally larger hyoid bones than modern felid species and thus likely produced deeper vocalizations. While Smilodon had the same number of hyoid bones as the "roaring" cats, their shape was closer to that of "purring" species.

Development

Smilodon started developing its adult saber-teeth when the animal reached between 12 and 19 months of age, shortly after the completion of the eruption of the cat's baby teeth. Both baby and adult canines would be present side by side in the mouth for an approximately 11-month period, and the muscles used in making the powerful bite were developed at about one-and-a-half years old as well, eight months earlier than in a modern lion. After Smilodon reached 23 to 30 months of age, the infant teeth were shed while the adult canines grew at an average growth rate of 7 mm per month during a 12-month period. They reached their full size at around 3 years of age, later than modern species of big cats. Juvenile and adolescent Smilodon specimens are extremely rare at Rancho La Brea, where the study was performed, indicating that they remained hidden or at denning sites during hunts, and depended on parental care while their canines were developing.

A 2024 study found evidence that adolescent Smilodon kept their milk sabers for extended periods (estimated at 30 months) to help reinforce their adult canines as they grew in. As a result, the milk sabers acted as a structural support, allowing them to begin hunting with minimized risk to their mature set of sabers. As a result, the retention of the cat's milk sabers lessened the bending strain on the cat's emerging adult teeth as it bit down, as it was discovered the erupting sabers were much more vulnerable to breakage as they grew in than when matured. This would have also resulted in Smilodon being "double-fanged" during this growth stage, as corroborated by the discovery of individuals at this ontogenic stage at Rancho La Brea.

A 2017 study indicates that juveniles were born with a robust build similar to the adults. Comparison of the bones of juvenile S. fatalis specimens from La Brea with those of the contemporaneous American lion revealed that the two cats shared a similar growth curve. Felid forelimb development during ontogeny (changes during growth) has remained tightly constrained. The curve is similar to that for modern cats such as tigers and cougars, but shifts more towards the robust direction of the axes than is seen in modern felids. Examinations by Reynolds, Seymour, and Evans (2021) suggest that Smilodon had a unique and fast growth rate similar to a tiger, but that there was a prolonged period of growth in the genus similar to what is seen in lions, and that the cubs were reliant on their parents until this growth period ended.

Paleopathology
Several Smilodon fossils show signs of ankylosing spondylitis, hyperostosis and trauma. One study of 1,000 Smilodon skulls found that 36% of them had eroded parietal bones, which is where the largest jaw muscles attach. They also showed signs of microfractures, and the weakening and thinning of bones possibly caused by mechanical stress from the constant need to make stabbing motions with the canines. Bony growths where the deltoid muscle inserted in the humerus is a common pathology for a La Brea specimen, which was probably due to repeated strain when Smilodon attempted to pull down prey with its forelimbs. Sternum injuries are also common, probably due to collision with prey.

The frequency of trauma in S. fatalis specimens was 4.3%, compared to 2.8% in the dire wolf, which implies the ambush predatory behavior of the former led to greater risk of injury than the pursuit predatory behavior of the latter. Smilodon remains exhibit relatively more shoulder and lumbar vertebrae injuries. A 2023 study documented a high degree of subchondral defects in limb-joint surfaces of S. fatalis and dire wolf specimens from the La Brea Tar pits that resembled osteochondrosis dissecans. As modern dogs with this disease are inbred, the researchers suggested this would have been the case for the prehistoric species as well as they approached extinction, but cautioned that more research was needed to determine if this was also the case in specimens from other parts of the Americas.

Osteomyelitis in the left fourth metacarpal bone has been reported in a S. populator specimen dating back to Marine Isotope Stage 5. This pathology resulted in the machairodont individual becoming incapable of flexing its toe and would have severely diminished its ability to hunt prey.

Distribution and habitat
Smilodon lived during the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 mya–10,000 years ago), and was perhaps the most recent of the saber-toothed cats. S. fatalis lived in a variety of habitats, being able to inhabit open grassland and parkland, marginal woodland-grassland settings, and closed forests. Fossils of the genus have been found throughout the Americas. The northernmost remains of the genus are S. fatalis fossils from Alberta, Canada, with the southernmost remains being known from the far south of Patagonia. The habitat of North America varied from subtropical forests and savannah in the south, to treeless mammoth steppes in the north. The mosaic vegetation of woods, shrubs, and grasses in southwestern North America supported large herbivores such as horses, bison, antelope, deer, camels, mammoths, mastodons, and ground sloths. North America also supported other saber-toothed cats, such as Homotherium and Xenosmilus, as well as other large carnivores including dire wolves, short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) and the American lion. Competition from such carnivores may have prevented North American S. fatalis from attaining the size of South America's S. populator. The similarity in size of S. fatalis and the American lion suggests niche overlap and direct competition between these species, and they appear to have fed on similarly sized prey.

S. gracilis entered South America during the early to middle Pleistocene, where it probably gave rise to S. populator, which lived in the eastern part of the continent. S. fatalis also entered western South America in the late Pleistocene, and the two species were thought to be divided by the Andes mountains. However, in 2018, a skull of S. fatalis found in Uruguay east of the Andes was reported, which puts the idea that the two species were allopatric (geographically separated) into question. The American interchange resulted in a mix of native and invasive species sharing the prairies and woodlands in South America; North American herbivores included proboscideans, horses, camelids and deer, South American herbivores included toxodonts, litopterns, ground sloths, and glyptodonts. Native metatherian predators (including the saber-toothed thylacosmilids) had gone extinct by the Pliocene, and were replaced by North American carnivores such as canids, bears, and large cats.

S. populator was very successful, while Homotherium never became widespread in South America. The extinction of the thylacosmilids has been attributed to competition with Smilodon, but this is probably incorrect, as they seem to have disappeared before the arrival of the large cats. The phorusrhacid "terror birds" may have dominated the large predator niche in South America until Smilodon arrived. S. populator may have been able to reach larger size than S. fatalis due to a lack of competition in Pleistocene South America; S. populator arrived after the extinction of Arctotherium angustidens, one of the largest carnivores ever, and could therefore assume the niche of mega-carnivore. S. populator preferred large prey from open habitats such as grassland and plains, based on evidence gathered from isotope ratios that determined the animal's diet. In this way, the South American Smilodon species was probably similar to the modern lion. S. populator probably competed with the canid Protocyon there, but not with the jaguar, which fed primarily on smaller prey. On the other hand, morphometry points to S. populator being best adapted for more closed environments.

Extinction
Along with most of the New World Pleistocene megafauna, Smilodon became extinct by 10,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene extinction phases of North and South America. Its extinction has been linked to the decline and extinction of large herbivores. Hence, Smilodon could have been too specialized at hunting large prey and may have been unable to adapt. Indeed, by the Bølling–Allerød warming event and before the Younger Dryas cooling event, S. fatalis showed changes in cranial morphology that hint towards increased specialization in larger prey and/or evolution in response to competition with other carnivores. However, a 2012 study of Smilodon tooth wear found no evidence that they were limited by food resources. Other explanations include climate change and competition with Homo sapiens (who entered the Americas around the time Smilodon disappeared), or a combination of several factors, all of which apply to the general Late Pleistocene extinction event, rather than specifically to the extinction of the saber-toothed cats. One factor often cited here is the cooling in the Younger Dryas, which may have drastically reduced the habitable space for many species. In terms of human influence, there is evidence of a fire-induced regime change in Rancho la Brea that preceded the extirpation of megafauna in the area, with humans most likely responsible for the increase in fire intensity.

Writers of the first half of the twentieth century theorized that the last saber-toothed cats, Smilodon and Homotherium, became extinct through competition with the faster and more generalized felids that replaced them. It was even proposed that the saber-toothed predators were inferior to modern cats, as the ever-growing canines were thought to inhibit their owners from feeding properly. Since then, however, it has been shown that the diet of machairodontines such as Smilodon and Homotherium was diverse. They do not seem to have been limited to giant animals as prey, as suggested before, but fed on whatever was available, including bovines, equines and camelids. Additionally, non-machairodontine felids such as the American lion and Miracinonyx also became extinct during the Late Pleistocene, and saber-toothed and conical toothed felids had formerly coexisted for more than a million years. The fact that saber-teeth evolved many times in unrelated lineages also attests to the success of this feature.

The youngest direct radiocarbon date for S. fatalis differs from that of S. populator by thousands of years, the former just before the Younger Dryas cooling event and the latter by the early Holocene. The latest S. fatalis specimen recovered from the Rancho La Brea tar pits has been dated to 13,025 years ago. A specimen of S. fatalis from Iowa dates to 13,605–13,455 years Before Present (BP). The latest Smilodon populator remains found in the cave of Cueva del Medio, near the town of Soria, northeast Última Esperanza Province, Magallanes Region in southernmost Chile have been dated to 10,935–11,209 years ago. The most recent credible carbon-14 date for S. fatalis has been given as 11,130 BP. However, such radiocarbon dates are likely uncalibrated, meaning that they were not adjusted from calendar years to regular years. As a result, the dates appear younger than they actually are. Therefore, the S. fatalis specimen from Rancho La Brea is the youngest-recorded of the species, suggesting extinction before the Younger Dryas based on its last appearance in California as opposed to other regions where megafauna declined by the Younger Dryas.

title: Smilodon


text:
Homotherium

Homotherium is an extinct genus of scimitar-toothed cat belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae that inhabited North America, South America, Eurasia, and Africa during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs from around 4 million to 12,000 years ago. It was one of the last surviving members of the subfamily alongside the more famous sabertooth Smilodon, to which it was distantly related. In comparison to Smilodon, the canines of Homotherium were shorter, and it was probably adapted to running down rather than ambushing prey.

Eurasia
The first fossils of this genus were described in 1846 by Richard Owen as the species Machairodus latidens. The name Homotherium (Greek: ὁμός (, 'same') and θηρίον (, 'beast')) was proposed by Emilio Fabrini (1890), without further explanation, for a new subgenus of Machairodus, whose main distinguishing feature was the presence of a large diastema between the two inferior premolars. He further described two species in this new subgenus: Machairodus (Megantereon) crenatidens and Machairodus (Megantereon) nestianus. In 1918, the species Homotherium moravicum was described by Woldřich. In 1936, Teilhard de Chardin described the new species Homotherium ultimus based on fossils from the middle Pleistocene-aged site at Zhoukoudian. In 1972, a species Homotherium davitašvlii was described based on fragmentary material found at Kvabebi in Georgia. Further material from Odessa was tentatively assigned to this species in 2004. In 1986, the species Homotherium darvasicum was described based on material from Kuruksay, Turkey. In 1989, another species Homotherium tielhardipiveteaui was named based on fossils from Tajikistan. In 1996, Homotherium hengduanshanense was described based on fossils from the Hengduan Mountains.

There is currently only one recognised species Homotherium in Eurasia during the Late Pliocene-Pleistocene, Homotherium latidens; other species, including H. nestianus, H. sainzelli, H. crenatidens, H. nihowanensis, and H. ultimum, were proposed mainly on size differences, and do not appear to be distinct.

Africa
In 1972 a species Homotherium problematicum (originally Megantereon problematicus) was named based on fragmentary material from Africa. A second African species discovered in Ethiopia, Homotherium hadarensis, was described in 1988. In 1990, Alan Turner challenged the validity of these two species, and later authors typically refrained from referring the African fossils to any specific species. Although in 2015, further material from Dikika was tentatively referred to H. hadarensis.

A third species, Homotherium africanum (originally Machairodus africanus), has also been included.

Americas
In 1905, Merriam described a new species Machaerodus ischyrus. Subsequently, in 1918, Merriam reassigned it to a new genus Ischyrosmilus along with the new species Ischyrosmilus idahoensis. The genus Dinobastis was originally named by Cope in 1893, with the type species Dinobastis serus. In 1965, the species Ischyrosmilus johnstoni was described. In the same paper, it was noted that a comparative study of both Ischyrosmilus and Homotherium might conclude them as synonyms.

In 1966, Churcher named Dinobastis a junior synonym of Homotherium, and recombined D. serus as Homotherium serum. In 1970, a new species Ischyrosmilus crusafonti was described from the early Pleistocene of Nebraska. In 1988, after some debate, the genus Ischyrosmilus was declared a junior synonym of Homotherium and all four species were reassigned to that genus as H. ischyrus, H. idahoensis, and H. johnstoni. The same paper also proposed keeping Dinobastis serus separate from Homotherium. Up to five species have been recognised from North America: H. idahoensis, H. crusafonti, H. ischyrus, H. johnstoni, and H. serum, while other authors suggest that there are only two species, with older Blancan specimens are assigned to the species H. ischyrus, while the younger ones are assigned to the species H. serum.

In 2005, a new species Homotherium venezuelensis was described based on fossils from the Pleistocene of Venezuela. In 2022, it was proposed that Homotherium venezuelensis be reassigned to the genus Xenosmilus.

Evolutionary history
The lineage of Homotherium is estimated (based on mitochondrial DNA sequences) to have diverged from that of Smilodon about 18 million years ago. Homotherium has been suggested to have originated from African species of the genus Amphimachairodus. Homotherium first appeared during the Early Pliocene, about 4 million years ago, with its oldest remains being from the Odesa catacombs in Ukraine, and Koobi Fora in Kenya, which are close in age, making the origin location of the genus uncertain. The genus arrived in North America during the late Pliocene. Specimens of Homotherium are known from Venezuela in northern South America, of an uncertain Early-Middle Pleistocene age. On the African continent the genus disappeared about 1.5 million years ago, during the Early Pleistocene. Homotherium was formerly thought to have become extinct in Eurasia during the late Middle Pleistocene, around 300,000 years ago, until the discovery of a single jaw bone from the North Sea which dates to around 28-30,000 years ago. The mitochondrial genome of this specimen is nearly identical to specimens known from North America, suggesting that this may have represented a Late Pleistocene dispersal from North America, rather than a continuous undocumented occupation of the region. Homotherium became extinct in North America around 12,000 years ago as part of the Quaternary extinction event along with most other large mammals in the Americas.

Description
Homotherium reached 1.1 m at the shoulder and weighed an estimated 190 kg and was therefore about the size of a male lion. Homotherium had shorter upper canines than other machariodonts such as Smilodon or Megantereon, but these were still longer than those of extant cats. The incisors and lower canines of Homotherium formed a powerful puncturing and gripping device, and its large canine teeth were crenulated. The jaws of Homotherium may have been adapted to clamp and hold prey while inflicting damage with the canine teeth, due to comparable amounts of trabecular bone present in skulls of the genus to those of the modern lion.

The large upper canines of Homotherium were likely hidden by the upper lips and gum tissues of the lower lips jaw similar to extant cats, unlike the larger upper canines of Smilodon. This hypothesis is further supported by comparable space between the canines and mandible at full closure of the jaws to modern cats; while Smilodon has significantly more space in this respect, likely for soft tissue to fit between the canine and mandible.

The visual cortex in the brain of Homotherium was large and complex, similar to the modern cheetah, implying that it relied heavily on vision during the hunt.

Diet and habitats
The decline of Homotherium could be a result of the disappearance of large herbivorous mammals like mammoths in America at the end of the Pleistocene. In North America fossil remains of Homotherium are less abundant than those of its contemporary Smilodon. For the most part it probably inhabited higher latitudes and altitudes and therefore was likely to be well adapted to the colder conditions of the mammoth steppe environment. The reduced claws, relatively slender limbs, and sloping back all appear to be adaptations for endurance running in open habitats.

Genomic analysis supports the hypothesis that Homotherium was social and well-adapted to life as a pursuit predator. The study also revealed that this genus of machairodont was most likely diurnal, and would have mainly hunted in daylight.

African Homotherium species seem to have hunted early Pleistocene species of Deinotherium, likely preferring to target the more vulnerable adolescents or calves in a herd. Due to their saber-teeth, an attack on such thick-skinned prey would have likely been significantly easier and less time-consuming compared to a similar hunt on modern elephants by lions.

At the well known Friesenhahn Cave site in Texas, the remains of almost 400 juvenile mammoths were discovered along with numerous Homotherium skeletons of all ages, from elderly specimens to cubs. Based on this fossil site, Homotherium was likely a social predator that would have been specialized in hunting young mammoths and that subsequently dragged the kills into secluded caves to eat in relative peace. Homotherium also seemed to have retained the excellent nocturnal vision typical of most cats, and hunting at night in the arctic regions where many Homotherium have been found would have been a prime hunting method. The sloped back and powerful lumbar section of Homotherium's vertebrae suggest a bear-like build, and thus that these animals could have been capable of pulling formidable loads; further, broken upper canines - a common injury in fossils of other machairodonts such as Machairodus and Smilodon that would have resulted from struggling with their prey - is not seen in Homotherium, perhaps because their social groups would completely restrain prey items before any of the cats attempted to kill the target with their saber teeth. Moreover, the bones of the young mammoths found in Friesenhahn Cave show distinctive marks matching the incisors of Homotherium, indicating that they could efficiently process most of the meat on a carcass and that the mammoths had been deposited in the caves by the cats themselves and not by scavengers. Examination of the bones also indicates that the carcasses of these juvenile mammoths were dismembered after being killed by the cats before being dragged away, suggesting that Homotherium would disarticulate their kill to transport it to a safe area such as a hidden lair or den and prevent competitors such as dire wolves and American lions from usurping the carcass. Isotopic analysis of H. serum dental remains have confirmed it fed on mammoths, along with other C4 grazers.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Homotherium


text:
Talk:Eiffel Tower

Semi-protected edit request on 27 September 2023
In the first paragraph, "Constructed from 1887, it is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower." "Constructed from 1887" seems like it should be a range such as "from 1887 to 1889" or "construction began in 1887" AsianAmericanVisibility (talk) 14:00, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ Tigraan Click here for my talk page ("private" contact) 14:06, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Convoluted and surprising section about Haiti and the financing of the Eiffel Tower
I read the article of the New York Times that this section sources, and did my own research, and I think the link between the activities of the CIC in Haiti and the Eiffel Tower is very convoluted. The CIC was not the only bank financing the Eiffel Tower, and the revenue from Haiti was very far from being the only source of revenue of the bank. The link the New York Times makes with the Eiffel Tower in their article is more an exaggeration to get a political message across than factual veracity, and I don't see the relevance of talking about Haiti here, as it is already explained in more fitting articles. Aurci (talk) 14:55, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 December 2023
“There was multiple protests...” Should read “There were...” 2001:5B0:2711:7498:E454:44EF:2494:9F37 (talk) 18:17, 27 December 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ Liu1126 (talk) 18:58, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Steps
The official website has 1,665. 327 + 347 + (991) = 1,665.

It says 1,802 when opened. 360 + 380 + 1,062 = 1,802. Implies only one change: in 1983. https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/news/visit/take-stairs-and-discover-eiffel-tower-new-way

Many sites say it opened with 1,710.

No site (that I could find) reliably cites 1,792.

One with 1,792, has a typo (in a different spot: 564, should be 364). It says changes were made in 1900. https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Eiffel-Tower/Renovations-of-the-Eiffel-tower.php

No site (that I could find) could tell me when the third level stairs were closed to the public. But 1900 seems likely.

Note: there are 3 posts in Archives asking about Steps.

MBG02 (talk) 16:30, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 July 2024
The last paragraph in the history, origin section should be removed, it has its place in specific articles, but not in the history section of the article about the Eiffel Tower. The article that this section sources uses the Eiffel Tower as a symbol, but its link with colonisation in Haiti is far-fetched. Aurci (talk) 09:14, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. I think the paragraph provides valuable context, and this is not a minor change to the article. As such, consensus needs to be developed here first before using the edit request template. PianoDan (talk) 17:49, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

 * You and I know that that kind of opinion article from the New York Times is biased towards a certain view of things.. The context you are talking about is completely invented by the author to push a political narrative, that kind of opinion should not be in the history section of a Wikipedia page. It gives the impression that the Eiffel Tower was funded by Haiti which any historian would say is complete nonsense Aurci (talk) 18:00, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Eiffel Tower


text:
Francis Asbury

Francis Asbury (August 20 or 21, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was a British-American Methodist minister who became one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. During his 45 years in the colonies and the newly independent United States, he devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback and by carriage thousands of miles to those living on the frontier.

Asbury spread Methodism in British colonial America and the United States as part of the Second Great Awakening. He also founded several schools during his lifetime, although his own formal education was limited. His journal is valuable to scholars for its account of frontier society, with references to many towns and villages in Colonial America. Along with John and Charles Wesley, Asbury is often celebrated as one of the founders of the Methodist Church.

Childhood and adolescence
Francis Asbury was born at Hamstead Bridge, Staffordshire, England on August 20 or 21, 1745, to Elizabeth and Joseph Asbury. The family moved to a cottage at Great Barr, Sandwell, the next year. His boyhood home still stands and is open as Bishop Asbury Cottage museum.

Soon after the family moved to Great Barr, in May 1748, Asbury's older sister, Sarah, died; he was less than three years old. Asbury wrote later that his mother Eliza was "very much a woman of the world"; with his sister's death, she "sank into deep distress....from which she was not relieved for many years," and was living "in a very, dark, dark, dark, day and place". A few years later she found a renewed Christian faith as itinerant preachers, either Baptist or Methodists, visited Barr on a revival circuit. From then on she began to read the Bible every day and encouraged her son to do so as well.

Eliza's deep faith may not have been shared by her husband, who seemed to have problems, possibly drink or gambling. Francis Asbury described his father as "industrious." The husband supported his wife in her faith and witness: he allowed Methodist meetings to be held each Sunday in the cottage.

During Asbury's childhood the West Midlands was undergoing massive changes as the industrial revolution swept through the area. Waves of workers migrated into the area, attracted by jobs in the growing factories and workshops in Birmingham and the Black Country of the mines. The Asburys lived in a cottage tied to a public house, on a main route between the mines and the factories. They would have been aware of the drinking, gambling, poverty and poor behaviour prevalent in the area.

Francis Asbury attended a local endowed school in Snail's Green, a nearby hamlet. He did not get on well with his fellow pupils who ridiculed him because of his mother's religious beliefs. During the 1740s there had been widespread anti-Methodist rioting in Wednesbury and the surrounding area, and into the 1750s a great deal of persecution. Nor did he like his teacher and left school at the first opportunity.

Asbury took a keen interest in religion, having "felt something of God as early as the age of seven". He lived not far from All Saints' Church, West Bromwich, which under the patronage of the Methodist Earl of Dartmouth, provided a living for Evangelical minister Edward Stillinghurst. Well connected, Stillinghurst invited as visiting preachers some of the foremost preachers and theologians of the day. These included John Fletcher, John Ryland, Henry Venn, John Cennick and Benjamin Ingham. His mother encouraged Francis to meet with the Methodists in Wednesbury, eventually joining a "band" with four other young men who would meet and pray together. For them a typical Sunday would be a preaching meeting at 5.00 am, communion at the parish church mid morning, and attending a preaching meeting again at 5.00 pm.

Asbury had his first formal job at age thirteen; he went "into service" for local gentry, whom he later described as "one of the most unGodly families in the parish". But he soon left them and is believed to have eventually worked for Thomas Foxall, at the Old Forge Farm, where he made metal goods. He became great friends with Foxall's son, Henry. They developed a friendship, which continued after Henry Foxall's emigration to Colonial America. There he continued working with metal and established the Foundry Church in Georgetown, now part of Washington, D.C.

Asbury began to preach locally, and eventually became an itinerant preacher on behalf of the Methodist cause.

Asbury's preaching ministry in England is detailed in the section below: "Asbury's circuits in England".

Asbury's work in America
At the age of 22, Asbury's selection by John Wesley as a traveling lay preacher became official. Typically such positions were held by young, unmarried men, known as exhorters. In 1771 Asbury volunteered to travel to British North America. His first sermon in the Colonies took place with the Methodist congregation in Woodrow, Staten Island. Within the first 17 days of being in the colonies, Asbury preached in both Philadelphia and New York. During the first year, he served as Wesley's assistant and preached in 25 different settlements. When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he and James Dempster were the only British Methodist lay ministers to remain in America.

"'During his early years in North America, Asbury devoted his attention mainly to followers living on the eastern shore between the Delaware River and the Chesapeake Bay. Bishop Asbury was a good friend of the Melsons and was their guest many times on his rounds. When the American revolution severed the traditional ties between the American Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain, Bishop Asbury, in the interest of his religious tenets and principles and in an attempt to remain aloof from the political and military fervor that swept the country, announced he would, to keep the embryonic Methodist congregations neutral, refrain from endorsing either Great Britain or the newly formed United States of America government and urged all his followers to do the same. This request placed almost all of his followers, especially those living in Maryland, in an untenable position. The State of Maryland had enacted a law requiring all citizens to take an Oath of Allegiance to the newly formed American Congress. In addition to this, it stipulated all non-residents within its boundaries also had to take and sign an Oath of Allegiance. Those refusing were summarily incarcerated for treason. Asbury, after proclaiming his neutrality, fled to Delaware, where taking an oath of allegiance was not a requirement. His adherents in Maryland suffered the rancor of the proponents of the Oath.'"Asbury remained hidden during the war and ventured occasionally back into Maryland. Sometimes this had the effect of compromising his parishioners.

Note: Asbury did not become ordained or a bishop until December 1784.

Asbury taught that “slavery was a crime against the laws of God, man, and nature”. In 1780, Asbury met the freedman Henry "Black Harry" Hosier, a meeting the minister believed "providentially arranged". Hosier served as his driver and guide and, though illiterate, memorized long passages of the Bible as Asbury read them aloud during their travels. Hosier eventually became a famous preacher in his own right, the first African American to preach directly to a white congregation in the United States.

A camp meeting
In the fall of 1800, Asbury attended one of the events of the Revival of 1800 as he travelled from Kentucky into Tennessee. The combined Presbyterian and Methodist communion observance made a deep impression on Asbury; it was as an early experience for him of multi-day meetings, which included attendees camping on the grounds or sleeping in their wagons around the meeting house. He recorded the events in his journal: it showed the relation between religious revivalism and camp meetings, later a staple of nineteenth-century frontier Methodism.

Ordained and consecrated a bishop
In 1784, John Wesley named Asbury and Thomas Coke as co-superintendents of the work in the United States. The Christmas Conference that year marked the beginning of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States. It was during this Conference that Asbury was ordained by Coke.

For the next 32 years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America. However, his leadership did not go unchallenged. His idea for a ruling council was opposed by such notables as William McKendree, Jesse Lee, and James O'Kelly. Eventually, based on advice by Coke, he established in 1792 a General Conference, to which delegates could be sent, as a way of building broader support.

His journeys
Like Wesley, Asbury preached in myriad of places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life, he rode an average of 6,000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and 700 ordained preachers. Among the men he ordained was Richard Allen in Philadelphia, the first black Methodist minister in the United States who later founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the country. Another African American was Daniel Coker, who emigrated to Sierra Leone in 1820 and became the first Methodist minister there from the West. Bishop Asbury also ordained Peter Cartwright in the fall of 1806.

Failing health and death
In 1813, Asbury wrote his will. This was a time when "the greatest membership gain in the history of the church" was achieved. In 1814 his health started to fail and he became ill. In 1816 he started to regain strength and continued his preaching journey. He "preached his last Sermon in Richmond, Virginia" on March 24, "and died at the home of George Arnold near Fredericksburg" on March 31.

Bishop Asbury died in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Baltimore, near the graves of Bishops John Emory and Beverly Waugh.

Ability as a preacher
In an exciting time in American history, Asbury was reported to be an extraordinary preacher. Biographer Ezra Squier Tipple wrote: "If to speak with authority as the accredited messenger of God; to have credentials which bear the seal of heaven ... if when he lifted the trumpet to his lips the Almighty blew the blast; if to be conscious of an ever-present sense of God, God the Summoner, God the Anointing One, God the Judge, and to project it into speech which would make his hearers tremble, melt them with terror, and cause them to fall as dead men; if to be and do all this would entitle a man to be called a great preacher, then Asbury was a great preacher."

Personal habits
"Francis Asbury had a great distrust of personal popularity, and equally marked distaste of personal publicity". Not being a vain person, he did not care to have his image preserved. He had been in America for 23 years, and a bishop for 10 years before he had let a portrait be made of him. His friend James McCannon persuaded him to have it done. Asbury had had a portrait painted of him for his mother in 1797. His last portrait was made in 1813 by an unknown artist in Strasburgh, Pennsylvania.

Asbury had times when he tended to have gloomy thoughts and opinions. He believed himself to be "a true prophet of evil tidings, as it suits my cast of mind". Although he was pessimistic, those who knew him considered him an extremely sensitive person. In his journal he recorded more failures and misgivings than success in his ministry. He loved simplicity and had "frequent spells of morbid depression". He tended to use cynical sarcasm in his preachings. One of the typical prayers he would say, even on his way to America, was "Lord, we are in thy hands and in thy work. Thou knowest what is best of us and for thy work; whether plenty or poverty. The hearts of all men are in thy hands. If it is best for us and for thy church that we should be cramped and straitened, let the people's hands and hearts be closed: If it is better for us; for the church,—and more to thy glory that we should abound in the comforts of life; do thou dispose the hearts of those we serve to give accordingly: and may we learn to be content whether we abound, or suffer need".

He rose at 5 every morning to read the Bible. He was impatient with those who did not do the tasks assigned to them as soon as the task was assigned. He was "one of the wisest and most farseeing men of his day".

His journal
On September 4, 1771, at the age of 26, Francis Asbury began his journey to Philadelphia from Pill near Bristol, England. "It cost him much to leave home and kindred, as is witnessed by his affectionate letters and sacrificial remittances home: but the call of God was not to be denied". Before he left, he wrote a letter to his family. "I wonder sometimes how anyone will sit to hear me, but the Lord covers my weakness with his power…. I trust you will be easy and more quiet. As for me, I know what I am called to. It is to give up all, and to have my hands and heart in the work, yea, the nearest and dearest friends…. Let others condemn me as being without natural affection, disobedient to parents, or say what they please…. I love my parents and friends, but I love my God better and his service…. And tho' I have given up all, I do not repent, for I have found all". On this voyage he began a journal. "In his journal he pours out the feelings and impulses of the moment, but often without giving a clue to either the offender or the offense". He became seasick for the first week but had recovered. He was "poor in material things, but rich in the spiritual atmosphere created and maintained by his mother". He also spent a lot of time studying and reading the Bible and books written by Wesley. On September 22, September 29, and October 6, he preached to the ship's company. Finally, on October 27, he landed at his destination in Philadelphia. His journal also contains some references to opinions of ministers who disagreed with the Methodist leadership, such as Rev. Charles Hopkins of Powhatan County, Virginia who had rejected the Methodist ideals several years before.

His journal also frequently mentioned Thomas S. Hinde who was the son of Dr. Thomas Hinde and founder of the city of Mount Carmel, Illinois.

Asbury's circuits in England
Asbury's travels in America are amply noted in his three-volume journal, The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury. However, his travels in England are much harder to piece together as very little information exists. John Wigger provide some details in American Saint, his biography on Asbury.

Around 1763, Asbury began leading the class of about two dozen faithful at the West Bromwich Wesleyan society. In March 1765, his mentor, Wesleyan Alexander Mather asked Asbury to assist him. For the next 11 months, the twenty-year-old Asbury taught and preached around the Staffordshire circuit. The circuit consisted of small Wesleyan societies in West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Billbrook. These areas were the foundation of Methodism in the Black Country. During this initial phase of his circuits around England, two Wesleyan preachers offered the majority of the young preachers mentoring. The first was the already mentioned Scottish itinerant, Mather. The second was an English preacher from Bedfordshire, James Glasbrook. These two taught Asbury, John Wesley's basic requirements for a Wesleyan itinerant preacher.

In January 1766, Mather offered him the opportunity to quit the forge and join the Wesleyan movement as a full-time itinerant on a trial basis. The twenty-one-year-old Asbury accepted. Part of his training as a full-time traveling preacher required that he read extensively from books suggested by Wesley, who made them available in London, Bristol and Newcastle. The list included several Divinity Books: the Bible, Wesley's tracts, the works of Boehm and Francke. There were also books on Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, History, Poetry and Latin Prose. There were also books on Latin Verse, Greek Prose, including the Greek New Testament, Greek Verse - including Homer's Iliad, and the Hebrew Bible.

For the next five months, during his circuits in England Asbury teamed with William Orpe, a young preacher who was the Hebrew teacher at Wesley's Kingswood School in Bristol. They covered the large Staffordshire circuit that encompassed not only Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Willenhall, Walsall, Wednesbury, Darlaston and Billbrook, but also an extended portion to the south in Worcestershire, Tewkesbury and Gloucestershire. Despite his happiness with his new career, Asbury struggled with a sense that his efforts were somewhat limited. He was still living with his parents, he was preaching in places that had heard him preach for the last five years. He looked for more travel and more responsibility.

Asbury pressed Mather to assign Asbury to the low round of the Staffordshire circuit, and found it more grueling than he had anticipated. After twelve months Mather sent him home for a short break. Asbury then received instructions to head for London. The London conference of 1767 assigned Asbury to the Bedfordshire circuit.

In London, it is likely that Asbury met George Whitefield when he attended worship at Whitefield's Tabernacle. At the time of Asbury's arrival in London, Benjamin Franklin was staying in London and a guest of his friend Whitefield, whom he had met years earlier during one of Whitefield's trips to America. Along with Franklin at Whitefield's home were Connecticut colonial leaders including a Mohegan Indian named Samson Occum and his traveling companion, Princeton College Presbyterian minister, Nathaniel Whitaker, Lord Dartmouth, and the merchant Dennis De Bert. Occum and Whitaker were in England to raise money for their Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut. Spending a couple months in London before the August conference, it is likely that Asbury not only heard Samson Occum speak at The Tabernacle, but also had opportunity to meet this unique group.

August 18, 1767 the conference in London began at John and Charles Wesley's Foundry Church. At this conference, Wesley assigned Asbury to the sprawling Bedfordshire circuit. In addition to Bedfordshire, Asbury was officially admitted on trial and teamed with Bedfordshire native, James Glasbrook. The main locations were Hertford, Luton, Sundon, Millbrook, Bedford, Clifton and Northampton. It was a rural circuit made up of small societies whose total membership was just 208 people.

In lieu of attending the 1768 conference in Bristol, Asbury is given instructions to wait in London to await his next assignment. Asbury's short stopover in London occurs at the same time that Benjamin Rush is staying with George Whitefield, having completed his medical studies in Edinburgh. After the Bristol conference in August 1768, Wesley assigns Asbury to the only circuit more difficult than the Staffordshire low Round, Colchester. Asbury will preach along the southern coastline of the River Stour, from Manningtree to Harwich. As beautiful as the scenery is, the area sours with rampant smuggling. Asbury is to preach against smuggling.

Perhaps out of worry for the young itinerant and the dangerous territory he travels, after two months on the Colchester circuit, Asbury receives word to relocate to the Wiltshire circuit. The three main cities of the Wiltshire circuit are Salisbury, Winchester and Portsmouth. In Portsmouth, it is likely that Asbury began his study of Hebrew through the large Jewish settlement that coexisted with the Portsmouth Methodists. In Portsmouth, the majority of the Jewish settlers reside in Portsea, also known as Portsmouth Common, the same area as the Methodists. For the next ten months, he remains on the Wiltshire circuit.

August 10, 1769, word from the Leeds Conference arrives for Asbury in Salisbury. Word from Wesley is that the next circuit is Oxfordshire. There he teams up with his friend from Staffordshire, Richard Whatcoat. In Oxford, Asbury and Whatcoat occasionally preach from St Giles Church. Asbury and Whatcoat remain in Oxford until Christmas. They are both assigned to preach the Bedfordshire circuit in the new year. In addition to returning to Northampton, Asbury will travel to the smaller Wesleyan societies in Towcester and Whittlebury. He also spends time in Weedon. For the next eight months, Asbury will preach on the western portion of the Bedfordshire circuit.

In March 1770, Wesley preached at West Bromwich. The news of Wesley draws Asbury to return home after nearly three years away. After his visit home, Asbury returns to the western portion of the Bedfordshire circuit. After the 1770 conference Wesley once again assigns Asbury to Wiltshire. It is during this assignment Asbury is abandoned by his assigned helper, John Catermole, who leaves the Wiltshire circuit after his dealing with a disorderly lay leader who threatens violence to Catermole and Asbury. A visit by Wesley to the struggling Wiltshire circuit results in Wesley asking Asbury to visit the Isle of Wight. It is at the August 1771 conference in Bristol where Asbury volunteers for the circuit simply called, America.

Legacy and honors

 * Asbury's boyhood home, the Bishop Asbury Cottage, Newton Road, Great Barr in Sandwell, England, is now a museum.
 * The first Methodist Episcopal school of higher education was named Cokesbury College (1785 - burned 1796) in honor of Asbury and Thomas Coke, drawing some concern from John Wesley. The name lives on in Cokesbury, part of the United Methodist publishing arm.
 * At least six schools have been named after Asbury:
 * Asbury Methodist Primary School in Lai King, Hong Kong.
 * Two are in Wilmore, Kentucky: Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary.
 * In addition, DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana was originally known as Indiana Asbury College after him.
 * Francis Asbury Elementary School in Hampton, Virginia.
 * Asbury House Child Enrichment Center in Longview, Texas
 * Asbury High School, Marshall County, Alabama
 * Asbury College, in Pangasinan, Philippines.
 * James A. Bradley, a convert to Methodism, named the town he founded on the New Jersey shore, Asbury Park, after Asbury. The Mascot of the Asbury Park High School is "The Bishops."
 * Asbury, New Jersey, an unincorporated community in Warren County is named after the bishop.
 * The former Asbury Methodist Church on Staten Island (now the Son-Rise Interfaith Center) stands as a monument to his memory.
 * In 1796 Bishop Asbury helped lay the cornerstone for the church in Hall's Mills, NJ which shortly changed its name to Asbury (now a village in Franklin Township, Warren County, NJ).
 * Asbury AME Church in Chester, Pennsylvania was founded in 1845 and renamed the church in honor of Asbury in 1863
 * A statue, Francis Asbury, was erected in Washington, D.C. in 1921.
 * A statue of Francis Asbury on horseback was erected at Drew University in Madison, NJ.
 * The Francis Asbury Trail at Lake Junaluska, NC was constructed around 1930.
 * A hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park follows part of the path Asbury took when crossing the mountains in the early 19th century. There is a monument dedicated to Asbury at Shiloh Memorial Cemetery in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where Asbury delivered a sermon on October 20, 1808.
 * Stratosphere Balloon Cave in Germany Valley, West Virginia was for over 150 years called "Asbury Cave". (Asbury records his 1781 visit to the cave in his Journal.)
 * Many towns and villages bear an Asbury United Methodist Church, including the fourth largest United Methodist Church in the denomination, located in Tulsa, OK.
 * The first Methodist Church in Northern China, the Asbury Church in Peking, built in 1870 by Rev. Hiram Harrison Lowry, was named after Asbury. Today the church is known as Chongwenmen Church (崇文门教堂).
 * Asbury Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, home of Northwestern University, founded by Methodists
 * Asbury, Iowa was founded by Methodists.
 * Asbury Road and Asbury Avenue in Ocean Grove, NJ, next to Asbury Park, with Wesley Lake separating them,is a town founded by Methodists in the late 1870s as a religious summer camp along the mid Atlantic coast.Descendants of the original campers still use the many tents in town each season and worship in the Great Auditorium.
 * Asbury Street in the second Ocean Grove, a seaside town established by Methodists in mid 1800s, in Victoria Australia.
 * Asbury Road, built around 1930 on the Friar Park housing estate near Asbury's birthplace
 * The World War II Liberty Ship SS Francis Asbury was named in his honor.
 * He wrote the constitution for and organized the Female Orphan Society of Norfolk, Virginia on March 24, 1804.

Sources for further reading

 * Eliza Asbury - her cottage and her son by David Hallam (ISBN 1858582350) This is a meticulously researched account of Asbury's life in England and the difficult correspondence with his mother and father during their subsequent lifelong separation.
 * The official Francis Asbury website. Contains an A-Z index of places and people mentioned in his journals.
 * Francis Asbury Triptych website. Contains articles on Francis Asbury and other key players of the Methodist movement in England and America. Also a book series on Francis Asbury.
 * Trailblazin' Bishop: The Francis Asbury Story . A one-man play on the life of Francis Asbury.
 * Francis Asbury podcasts about his ministry of
 * Bishop Asbury Cottage - story on the BBC website about Francis Asbury's former home
 * Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury (1958) by Francis Asbury (ISBN 0-687-20581-6)
 * American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists (Oxford University Press, 2009) by John H. Wigger (ISBN 0-195-38780-5)
 * Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America, 1770-1820 (Oxford University Press, 1998) by John H. Wigger (ISBN 0-195-10452-8)
 * America's Bishop: The Life of Francis Asbury (2003) by Darius Salter (ISBN 1-928915-39-6)
 * The Story of American Methodism: A History of the United Methodists and Their Relations (1974) by Frederick Abbott Norwood (ISBN 0-687-39641-7)
 * The Heritage of American Methodism (1999) by Kenneth Cain Kinghorn (ISBN 0-687-05500-8)
 * From Wesley to Asbury: Studies in Early American Methodism (1976) by Frank Baker (ISBN 0-8223-0359-0)

title: Francis Asbury


text:
İncirlik

İncirlik is a town and former municipality in the Sarıçam district of Adana Province in southern Turkey, 8 km (5 mi) east of the centre of Adana. Its population is 15,763 (2022).

Governance
İncirlik municipality was established within the Yüreğir district in 1971. In 2008, it became part of the newly created district of Sarıçam and was incorporated into the municipality of Sarıçam as the three meighbourhoods Hürriyet, Kemalpaşa and Yenimahalle. Each neighbourhood is administered by the Muhtar and the Seniors Council.

Economy
İncirlik's economy is mainly agriculture and manufacturing. The major institution in İncirlik is NATO's Incirlik Air Base.

Transport
İncirlik railway station, opened in 1912, is currently served by two regional lines and one long-distance line.

Adana Metropolitan Municipality Bus Department (ABBO) has bus routes from downtown Adana to İncirlik. İncirlik Minibus Co-operative also conducts local transport from downtown.

title: İncirlik


text:
Prenatal care

Prenatal care, also known as antenatal care, is a type of preventive healthcare. It is provided in the form of medical checkups, consisting of recommendations on managing a healthy lifestyle and the provision of medical information such as maternal physiological changes in pregnancy, biological changes, and prenatal nutrition including prenatal vitamins, which prevents potential health problems throughout the course of the pregnancy and promotes the mother and child's health alike. The availability of routine prenatal care, including prenatal screening and diagnosis, has played a part in reducing the frequency of maternal death, miscarriages, birth defects, low birth weight, neonatal infections and other preventable health problems.

Traditional prenatal care in high-income countries generally consists of:
 * monthly visits during the first two trimesters (from the 1st week to the 28th week)
 * fortnightly visits from the 28th week to the 36th week of pregnancy
 * weekly visits after 36th week to the delivery, from the 38th week to the 42nd week
 * Assessment of parental needs and family dynamics

The traditional form of antenatal care has developed from the early 1900s and there is very little research to suggest that it is the best way of giving antenatal care. Antenatal care can be costly and uses many staff. The following paragraphs describe research on other forms of antenatal care, which may reduce the burden on maternity services in all countries.

Visits numbers
The WHO recommends that pregnant women should all receive at least eight antenatal visits to spot and treat problems and give immunizations. Although antenatal care is important to improve the health of both mother and baby, many women do not receive eight visits. There is little evidence behind the number of antenatal visits, pregnant women receive and what care and information is given at each visit. It has been suggested that women who have low-risk pregnancies should have fewer antenatal visits. However, when this was tested, women with fewer visits had babies who were much more likely to be admitted to neonatal intensive care and stay there for longer (though this could down to chance results). A 2015 Cochrane Review findings buttresses this notion, with evidence that in settings with limited resources, where the number of visits is already low, programmes of ANC with reduced visits are associated with an increase in perinatal mortality. Therefore, it is doubtful that the reduced visits model is ideal, even in low income countries (LICs), where pregnant women are already attending fewer appointments. Not only is visiting prenatal care early is highly recommended, but also a more flexible pathway allowing more visits, from the time a pregnant woman books for prenatal care, as it potentially enables more attention to those women who come late. Also, women who had fewer antenatal visits were not as satisfied with the care they received compared with women who had the standard number of visits. A new alternative for some of the routine prenatal care visits is Telemedicine.

There are many ways of changing health systems to help women access antenatal care, such as new health policies, educating health workers and health service re-organisation. Community interventions to help people change their behavior can also play a part. Examples of interventions are media campaigns reaching many people, enabling communities to take control of their own health, informative-education-communication interventions and financial incentives. A review looking at these interventions found that one intervention helps improve the number of women receiving antenatal care. However interventions used together may reduce baby deaths in pregnancy and early life, lower numbers of low birth weight babies born and improve numbers of women receiving antenatal care.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2015 around 830 women died every day from problems in pregnancy and childbirth. Only 5 lived in high-income countries. The rest lived in low-income countries.

A study examined the differences in early and low-weight birth deliveries between local and immigrant women and saw the difference caused by prenatal care received. The study, between 1997 and 2008, looked at 21,708 women giving birth in a region of Spain. The results indicated that very preterm birth (VPTB) and very low birth weight (VLBW) were much more common for immigrants than locals (Castelló et al., 2012). The study showed the importance of prenatal care and how universal prenatal care would help people of all origins get proper care before pregnancy/birth (Castelló et al., 2012).

Group versus individual care
Group antenatal care has a couple of obvious benefits: it costs less than one-to-one visits and the women have more hours of care as a group than on their own. Only small studies have been conducted looking at group care but they have found that mothers knew more about pregnancy, birth and parenting in the group setting. The mothers reported liking the group care and the review found no difference between how the pregnancies developed between the group and individual settings.

Midwife-led care
Midwife-led care for low-risk women is where a midwife team (and GP if needed) leads the care a woman receives and she does not usually see a specialist doctor in her pregnancy. Women with midwife-led pregnancies are more likely to give birth without being induced but have natural labours. However they are less likely to have their waters broken, an instrumental delivery, episiotomy or preterm birth. Around the same number of women in each group had a caesarean section.

Prenatal examinations
At the initial antenatal care visit and with the aid of a special booking checklist the pregnant women become classified into either normal risk or high risk.

In many countries, women are given a summary of their case notes including important background information about their pregnancy, such as their medical history, growth charts and any scan reports. If the mother goes to a different hospital for care or to give birth the summary of her case notes can be used by the midwives and doctors until her hospital notes arrive.

A review looking into women keeping their own case notes shows they have more risk of having a caesarean section. However the women reported feeling more in control having their notes and would like to have them again in future pregnancies. 25% of women reported their hospital notes were lost in hospital though none of the women forgot to take their own notes to any appointments.

Prenatal diagnosis or prenatal screening (note that "Prenatal Diagnosis" and "Prenatal Screening" refer to two different types of tests) is testing for diseases or conditions in a fetus or embryo before it is born. Obstetricians and midwives have the ability to monitor mother's health and prenatal development during pregnancy through series of regular check-ups.

Physical examinations generally consist of:
 * Collection of (mother's) medical history
 * Checking (mother's) blood pressure
 * (Mother's) height and weight
 * Pelvic exam
 * Doppler fetal heart rate monitoring
 * (Mother's) blood and urine tests
 * Discussion with caregiver

In some countries, such as the UK, the symphysial fundal height (SFH) is measured as part of antenatal appointments from 25 weeks gestation. (The SFH is measured from the woman's pubic bone to the top of the uterus. ) A review into this practice found only one piece of research so there is not enough evidence to say whether measuring the SFH helps to detect small or large babies. As measuring the SFH is not costly and is used in many places, the review recommends carrying on this practice.

Growth charts are a way of detecting small babies by the measuring the SFH. There are two types of growth chart: A review looking into which of these charts detected small babies found that there is no good quality research to show which is best. More research is needed before the customized growth charts are recommended because they cost more money and take more time for the health care workers to make.
 * 1) Population based chart, which shows a standard growth and size for each baby
 * 2) Customized growth chart, which is worked out by looking at the mother's height and weight, and the weights of their previous babies.

Obstetric ultrasounds are most commonly performed during the second trimester at approximately week 20. Ultrasounds are considered relatively safe and have been used for over 35 years for monitoring pregnancy. Among other things, ultrasounds are used to:
 * Diagnose pregnancy (uncommon)
 * Check for multiple fetuses
 * Assess possible risks to the mother (e.g., miscarriage, blighted ovum, ectopic pregnancy, or a molar pregnancy condition)
 * Check for fetal malformation (e.g., club foot, spina bifida, cleft palate, clenched fists)
 * Determine if an intrauterine growth retardation condition exists
 * Note the development of fetal body parts (e.g., heart, brain, liver, stomach, skull, other bones)
 * Check the amniotic fluid and umbilical cord for possible problems
 * Determine due date (based on measurements and relative developmental progress)

Generally an ultrasound is ordered whenever an abnormality is suspected or along a schedule similar to the following:
 * 7 weeks — confirm pregnancy, ensure that it's neither molar or ectopic, determine due date
 * 13–14 weeks (some areas) — evaluate the possibility of Down syndrome
 * 18–20 weeks — see the expanded list above
 * 34 weeks (some areas) — evaluate size, verify placental position

A review looking at routine ultrasounds past 24 weeks found that there is no evidence to show any benefits to the mother or the baby.

Early scans mean that multiple pregnancies can be detected at an early stage of pregnancy and also gives more accurate due dates so that less women are induced who do not need to be.

Levels of feedback from the ultrasound can differ. High feedback is when the parents can see the screen and are given a detailed description of what they can see. Low feedback is when the findings are discussed at the end and the parents are given a picture of the ultrasound. The different ways of giving feedback affect how much the parents worry and the mother's health behaviour although there is not enough evidence to make clear conclusions. In a small study, mothers receiving high feedback were more likely to stop smoking and drinking alcohol however the quality of the study is low and more research is needed to say for certain which type of feedback is better.

Women experiencing a complicated pregnancy may have a test called a Doppler ultrasound to look at the blood flow to their unborn baby. This is performed to detect signs that the baby is not getting a normal blood flow and therefore is 'at risk'. A review looked at performing Doppler ultrasounds on all women even if they were at 'low risk' of having complications. The review found that routine Doppler ultrasounds may have reduced the number of preventable baby deaths but the evidence was not strong enough to recommend that they should be made routine for all pregnant women.

United States
Proper prenatal care affects all women of various social backgrounds. While availability of such services have considerable personal health and social benefits, socioeconomic problems prevent its universal adoption in both developing and developed nations, such as the US. Although women can benefit by utilizing prenatal care services, there exists various levels of health care accessibility between different demographics throughout the United States.

title: Prenatal care