The sabre-toothed cat (Smilodon) is a large felid of the subfamily Felinae that inhabited North and South America during the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 mya–10,000 years ago). The species was named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Although commonly known as the sabre-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to either the tigers or lions of Africa and Eurasia. Smilodon populator, at up to 350 kg (772 lb), was the largest species; S. fatalis weighed between 130 and 180 kg (290 and 400 lb), while S. gracilis was slightly smaller than S. fatalis but more heavily built.
Smilodon teeth are some of the longest canine teeth found in any mammal relative to body size. The canines of Smilodon grew to an average length of 7–10 cm (2 3⁄4 – 4 in). However, unlike modern cats, which stab their prey with sharp incisors and then tear flesh with carnassial molars located further back in their mouths, Smilodon had long canines for puncturing vital organs such as hearts and lungs, but relatively small cheek teeth for slicing meat like a steak knife. Its jaw had little side-to-side motion compared with modern cats, suggesting that Smilodon fed primarily by stabbing its prey from above rather than shaking it apart side-to-side like other felids such as lions or panthers do when feeding on larger prey animals such as ungulates (hoofed mammals).
Fossils attributed to Smilodon have been found in deposits ranging from Florida to Chile; however most have been recovered from California and Rancho La Brea tar pits near Los Angeles. More than 200 specimens have been excavated from Rancho La Brea since 1906—more than any other site in the world; many others have come from tar pits around Mexico City including Tultepec near Lake Texcoco where numerous examples were preserved along with those of dire wolves and mammoths which fell into them while drinking water around 10,000 years ago during the last ice age when conditions were much drier there due to lower sea levels exposing land bridges between continents allowing migration of these large animals northward out of South America into North America..