Machairodontinae

Machairodontinae (from Ancient Greek μάχαιρα (mákhaira), a type of ancient sword, and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth") is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the cat family Felidae, representing the earliest diverging major branch of the family.

Machairodonts varied in size from comparable to lynxes to exceeding that of lions. The Machairodontinae contain many of the extinct predators commonly known as "saber-toothed cats", including those with greatly elongated upper maxillary canines, such as the famed genus Smilodon and Megantereon, though the degree of elongation was variable, and in some machairodontines like Dinofelis the length of the upper canines was much more modest. Sometimes, other carnivorous mammals with elongated teeth are also called saber-toothed cats, although they do not belong to the felids. Besides the machairodonts, other saber-toothed predators also arose in the nimravids, barbourofelids, machaeroidines, hyaenodonts and even in two groups of metatherians (the thylacosmilid sparassodonts and the deltatheroideans). Unlike living big cats, which generally clamp the muzzle or throat of prey to asphyxiate them, saber-toothed machairodontines are thought to have killed prey using a bite to the neck once immobilised, using their neck muscles to drive the saber teeth into the throat while the lower jaw served as an anchor, causing rapid death via blood loss.