Could smaller carnivores be added to the roster?
It appears that P. atrox and the Jaguar are not going to be added to the game. The former is too similar to the S. fatalis, and some claim the latter is too. Someone also wrote on here that little evidence has been found of Jaguars actually being frequent in Rancho La Brea too.
Also, the game's had serious issues with psychotic carnivore players, so maybe it's for the best that focus should be placed squarely on herbivores for now. But, I do believe that some smaller predators could be added to the game, ones that are too small to be a genuine threat to herbivore players.
I've been wondering if the American Badger could be added to the roster. I believe it was present in the area. Rancho La Brea Badgers were also quite a bit bigger and more robust than modern American Badgers: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2020CD/webprogram/Paper345997.html
It hunts rodents, birds, and small reptiles. It also has some omnivore tendencies too, but it is primarily a predatory carnivore. It also forages on insects and grubs. Some good mechanics could be made for the badger, such as raiding bird nests and digging for grubs and small mammals. Rancho La Brea had a diverse array of rodents for the Badger to hunt, like Gophers, Ground Squirrels, Voles. They also frequently hunt moles, which were also present at La Brea.
American Badgers are also very proficient and powerful burrowers. They've been recording digging through concrete and asphalt apparently. They are built for burrowing. They spend most of their time underground, constructing their own burrows or raiding the burrows of rodent prey. Their burrows are expansive and can be spread out along their home range.
In the game, they could be given a burrowing mechanic like Paramylodon. Digging large tunnel systems to hunt subterranean prey and den. The devs could start adding mole Hills, Gopher and Ground Hog burrows around the map for Badger players to raid, and bigger carnivores (like Dire Wolves and Coyotes) to raid as well.
Another small carnivore that could be added is the Bobcat. It could function as a stealth and agility-based playable that hunts small NPCs like the Brush Rabbit and Dwarf Pronghorns, as well as birds and possible rodent npcs.
Players would need to be stealthy and conceal themselves to avoid conflict with bigger carnivores. Bobcats are also proficient climbers, so this would allow players to scale trees that Smilodon (and Black Bears) cannot. This would allow players to rest safely and survey their surroundings. Bobcat players could also make usage of rodent or Badger burrows too.
The Puma could be a possible option. But I think it would be too similar to the Miracinonyx, which was a lot more similar to it in build and lifestyle than previously thought, I believe.