"The marked seasonality which characterized temperate Europe for most of the Pliestocene, with cooler and drier conditions than those of tropical Africa, made the availability of large ungulate carcasses for scavenging a key resource for hominids to survive during the cool season. Between 1.5 and 0.5Ma the composition of the European carnivore guild was quite different from that of East Africa, including two species of sabre-toothed cat (Homotherium latidens and M.whitei), which presumably maximised the amount of flesh that remained on their kills, thus opening broad opportunities for scavenging by both hyaenas and hominids."