Por Manuel J. Salesa (Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales - CSIC, Spain).

The sabre-toothed felids (subfamily Machairodontinae) ruled the mammalian faunas from the Late Miocene (around 9.5 Ma) until only 11,000 years ago, when they shared the habitat with our species. The main feature of this group is the possession of elongated and laterally flattened upper canines,  with crenulated margins in most of the species. This distinguishes the sabre-toothed felids from the subfamily Felinae, which have short canines of round section, with no crenulations. The earliest members of both subfamilies appeared in the Middle Miocene (14 Ma), and during millions of years, both groups coexisted, although sabre-toothed felids were always the dominant predators. Around 3 Ma, the first forms of leopards, tigers and lions appeared, and this probably accentuated the competition between sabre-toothed felids and felines, until the former became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, due to climatic events and changes in the fauna of herbivores.

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