A new analysis suggests saber teeth were highly specialized for puncturing prey, ultimately at the cost of durability.

Saber teeth such as those that belonged to ... combined with their owners’ extinction. It’s clear that anything that long and sharp could be very handy for subduing prey.

A new analysis suggests saber teeth were highly specialized for puncturing prey, ultimately at the cost of durability. Saber teeth in predators evolved many times. Did it lead to their extinction?

In the history of teeth, perhaps no tooth is as famous as the saber tooth. These long, blade-like canines seem almost perfectly optimized to kill prey. They've evolved at least five times in ...

so saber teeth could represent a cautionary tale of evolution - getting too good at one thing just might lead to extinction. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by ...