A South American marsupial cat and a North American placental cat existed 10,000 years ago and shared a tree shrew-like common ancestor about 120 million years before that. Both of these animals evolved a saber-toothed adaptation. What does the presence of this complex trait mean?

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The fact that two distantly related species, a South American marsupial cat and a North American placental cat, both evolved a saber-toothed adaptation suggests that this complex trait evolved independently in both lineages. This is supported by the fact that these two species share a common ancestor that lived 120 million years before they evolved the saber-toothed adaptation, indicating that the trait did not arise in their shared ancestor but rather evolved separately in each lineage.

A South American Marsupial Cat and a North American Placental