Bite force estimation of Smilodon fatalis using forward and inverse methodologies

Bite force estimates of extinct species can lead to establishing many hypotheses about the extinct animals. This work is focused on estimating the bite forces of an extinct cat Smilodon fatalis. Bite forces were estimated using the classical Finite Element Method (FEM) and also by optimization principles by posing it as an inverse structural problem.; FE model of the species is developed from the fossil data which are widely available, and the structural optimization problem is posed as an ill-posed inverse problem and solved for the bite forces. Stability issues related to inverse problems is dealt using the Tikhonov regularization method. Throughout the research, FEM is used as forward solver and Genetic Algorithms is used as optimization routine.