When we think of a saber-tooth, we imagine Smilodon, once called the saber-tooth tiger, that roamed America thousands of years ago and left remains in the La Brea tar pits. There were actually three species of the Smilodon genus. But not all saber-tooth animals were cats. They weren’t even all carnivores! Terrifyingly long canine teeth evolved separately in mammals from the very beginning of mammals. Tiarajudens eccentricus was a proto-mammal that lived in Brazil 260 million years ago. It didn’t eat meat, but had long canines that were possible used to fight others of their species. The genus Inostrancevia was a ten-foot-long proto-mammal with species found in both Russia and South Africa, indicating they migrated over time before the continents split apart. Get a short course in saber-toothed creatures in a roundup of eight very different toothy animals that lived millions of years apart at Smithsonian.
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(Image credit: Momotarou2012)
Source: neatorama