An icon of the giant teeth history books. The world’s largest, heaviest teeth. If you had to make an informed snap judgement probably based on something completely personal and arbitrary about who had the best teeth, who would win?

Sabre-toothed Cat (Smilodon)

Smilodon is best known for the two eleven inch canine teeth which are the source of all its street cred. These nasty canines were slightly serrated and relatively fragile and could not have bitten into bone, leading some scientists to postulate that they were not used for biting, but instead were used to slash the throat of subdued prey. Additionally, although the teeth were made to withstand a larger amount of force relative to those of modern jungle cats, Smilodon’s jaws were comparatively thin and its bite was weaker than that of its descendants.

African Elephant

The African Elephant, on the other hand, has the largest teeth of any land animal. The tusks are actually the second upper incisors, and grow throughout an elephant’s lifetime like beaver teeth. Usually an elephant favors one tusk over the other, like a human does with hands. The tusks fuse very directly with the skull, allowing the animal to lift great amounts of weight with only its pearly whites. It also has the largest and heaviest molars in the animal kingdom. An elephant’s molars grow at the back of the jaw and continuously push their way out, replacing old, worn molars (like shark teeth) up to a maximum of six- times (after which they are toothless and cannot eat so well).