No cat is quite like Smilodon. This Ice Age predator, which could exceed the size of the largest living tigers, relied on incredible limb strength to grapple prey to the ground before sinking seven-inch canines into an exposed belly or throat. In museums, pulp novels, and films, Smilodon—meaning “knife-tooth”—is portrayed as the epitome of ferocity, using curved fangs to spill the blood of its prey across the Pleistocene grasslands of North America.

“Their sabers likely allowed prey to bleed out more quickly,” says Vanderbilt University paleontologist Larisa DeSantis, rather than delivering suffocating bites like modern lions. The hunting tactic allowed the predator to tackle large prey, such as American camels and horses, that also roamed the planet during the last glacial