For eleven thousand years they've been sleeping: The first victims are found torn to pieces in the hills of Santa Barbara. Authorities believe it's the grisly work of a serial murderer who kills with a feral, inhuman instinct. They're half - right. Anthropologist Jim Grand knows the truth. Reporter Hannah Hughes fears it. For eleven thousand years they've been developing an appetite: Awakened from a cryogenic slumber deep in the cold, dark caves of southern California, a carnivorous, prehistoric terror has emerged. Grand calls it fatalis. History calls it the saber - tooth cat. They've returned with only one purpose: to eat. And nothing in eleven thousand years can stop them: With each new dawn they crawl closer to civilisation. Closer to the scent of their ultimate - and powerless - prey. The battle between past and present, between man and beast has been waged. And God help the loser...