aber-toothed cats are some of the best known and most popular of all Ice Age animals. Two different types of saber-toothed cats lived in the Americas 12,000 years ago. One type was the Scimitar Cat (Homotherium serum), which had shorter canines than the more familiar Saber-Toothed Tiger (Smilodon fatalis), which is the species discussed here. Despite its common name, the Saber-Toothed Tiger was more closely related to modern-day wildcats (pumas, bobcats, etc.) than to tigers.