Machairodus

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Machairodus Temporal range: Late Miocene (Tortonian to Messinian), 12.5–5.5 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skeleton on display at the National Natural History Museum of China
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	†Machairodontinae
Tribe:	†Homotherini
Genus:	†Machairodus Kaup, 1833
Type species
†Machairodus aphanistus Kaup, 1832
Other Species
M. alberdiae? Ginsburg et al., 1981 M. laskerevi Sotnikova, 1992[1] M. robinsoni Kurtén, 1975 M. lahayishupup? Orcut, 2021

Machairodus (from Greek: μαχαίρα machaíra, 'knife' and Greek: ὀδούς odoús 'tooth')^[2] is a genus of large machairodont or ''saber-toothed cat'' that lived in Africa, Eurasia and North America during the Late Miocene, from 12.5 million to 5.5 million years ago. It is the animal from which the subfamily Machairodontinae gets its name. Some species of the genus reached sizes comparable to a tiger, making them apex predators of the ecosystems they inhabited. It is currently usually placed as one of the most primtive members of the tribe Homotherini, and the ancestor of later members of the tribe.