Conan's Prehistoric Adventure Featuring Homotherium

 

 In Savage Sword of Conan #151, the story, called "Fury of the Near-Men," writer Chuck Dixon takes Howard's barbarian hero into the lush savanna's south of the Black Kingdoms of Kush in what would now be sub-Saharan Africa. Though at this time, Africa is merged with what will later become Europe, and the Mediteranian Sea does not exist. James, Silke, author of Frazetta's Deathdealer series, may have borrowed that last idea from Howard's already-established Hyborian age. 

Anyway, Conan encounters a number of prehistoric survivors in Hyborian-age Africa. First he battles a pack of (extant in our time) painted wolves, also known as African Cape hunting dogs. 

Then he encounters a wagon-train, bearing a family of travelers from the north, including the obligatory pretty girl, from the European region of the Hyborian world-continent, with a few native guides (I forget if this was an acting troupe, or the Hyborian equivalent of a safari; I'll guess the latter). Anyway, a huge saber-tooth feline attacks them, killing a guide, before the girl manages to wound it with her bow. Its Conan, of course that attacks and manages to slay the beast, following a horrendous battle. That's all good and well---but note that this is NOT the conventional saber-tooth tiger that is almost always the species featured during any encounter with a saber-tooth. This creature is of the species homotherium, which did live in Africa during the late Plesticene, but also throughout Europe to (north) east Asia, and even into the northern part of North America, at the same time that the more infamous smilodon ruled the Americas south of there. The homotherium ("man-beast") is sometimes referred to as a "dirk-toothed" cat rather than saber-toothed. It was believed to have died out earlier around 300,000 years ago, but are now believed to have roamed Europe much more recently, though these survivors were evidently much rarer than the European cave lion. This is evidenced by a small statuette by a Cor-magnon artist dating from a mere 30, 000 years ago! 

Carving thought to represent homotherium latitdens, showing a short-tail, a possibly lightly spotted coat, and no visable fangs, as would be the case with a dirk-tooth. Source:

http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/03/late-survival-of-homotherium-confirmed.html

Anyway, after slaying the beast, and sticking its head on a pike, Conan bonds with the travelers, sometime afterward, the party is attacked a band of strange ape-men, something like
surviving australopithicines which retained their simian appearance,  but seem to be of much higher intelligence than their ancestors. A separate evolutionary branch, in other words, than the one that led to ourselves.

The girl and her family get captured. Conan is injured, but is saved and nursed by a rival tribe of beast-men, who seem more feline than primate. Conan makes allies with them, and on their way to save the traveler, two huge mastodons are seen. The city of evolved ape-men is quite bizarre, a constructed labyrinth of wood tunnels, covered and interconnected. 

They raid the ape-men's fortress and save the family, Conan killing the huge bloated king of the pithicus tribe, and all ends well, with the suggestion that cat-like beast men will always remember Conan in their folklore. 

"Fury of the Near-Men" was drawn by the combo of Gary Kwapisz and Ernie Chan, two of the Old Master of barbarian comics, who'd been teaming up for Savage Sword since the mid-eighties. 

Chuck Dixon, who was in the middle of a long run on Savage Sword at the time, most might remember for creating the Batman villain Bane for DC comics, though his work on Marvel's Conan was extensive.