If you’ve seen the movie Ice Age, you probably know what a saber-toothed tiger looks like. We’re talking fangs that grew up to 20 cm long (about 8 inches) and a seriously nasty set of claws. Not to mention a powerful, muscular body that was built more like a bear than a cat! Of course they lived thousands of years ago, so you don’t have to worry about one taking a chomp out of you with those fangs today. But were those fangs really so dangerous? Sure they look like monster chompers, but scientists are starting to doubt whether that could have really done the sort of damage we imagine they could.

So what gives? Well, it turns out that when it comes to the strength of their bite, modern day lions have saber-toothed tigers beat, despite those fearsome fangs. Scientists now believe that the saber-toothed tiger’s bite only had about one third the power of a lion’s bite. How do scientists know that this puss had a wussy bite? They used a computer program to show what would have happened to the saber-toothed tiger’s skull if it bit down on a moving target. It turns out that its skull was not strong enough to stand up to the force of such a bite. On the other hand, modern lions can bite into their prey and bring it down while it is running.

What does this mean for saber-toothed tigers? Did they go extinct because they couldn’t catch their meal? Nope, not at all. But it does mean that they probably used those ferocious claws and big muscles a little more than we realized. Fangs or no fangs, those claws and biceps could still kick some serious butt!