[otherme123]

> The question is how they get around sabre tooth without being a major obstruction to bite pieces of meat off.

If you watch a video/picture of a lion eating or look closely to your cat, you'll notice they chew straight with their molars: https://media.istockphoto.com/id/176047661/photo/lion-chewin...

Canines are their hunting knives, where they need to penetrate deeply and then hold the piece in place until it is disabled. Canines are unable to chew properly, as they don't have a counterpart that works as the anvil, they just perforate. Also, the structure analysis show that canines would shatter if used to chew bones, so they where reserved to bite the neck or the belly while hunting.

It is speculated that the Sabre Tooth tigers (500 kg/1000 pounds) could take down a 3000 kg/6000 pound) megahervibore, that probably had a skin and fat as thick as a modern elephant. They needed those canines to kill those preys.