App: 10cms long The sabre tooth tiger belongs to the genus Smilodon. It was approximately 1.2 metres long and was uncommonly strong. Unlike all the other cats, it had a very short tail. They are so called for their large, sabre-like maxillary canine teeth, which extend from their mouths even when it was closed. Their jaws had an opening angle greater than 120 °. The smilodon probably preferred hunting large, slow animals, such as Mammoth or bison. In the Pleistocene layer of the Rancho La Brea asphalt pits near Los Angeles (California, USA) more than 2,000 skeletons of this large carnivore were found.