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The saber-toothed tiger of the ancient era may have been killed by early ancestors, reveal new fossils found by researchers today, according to BBC News.

Hence, our forefathers, the homo heidelbergensis, were the first human ancestors that used wooden tools like spears for hunting deer.

However, the recent findings show that the spears might have been used for more than just hunting. They were also defensive devices to protect themselves against the big cats.

Some feline teeth and bones at a site in Germany held "the oldest discovery of human spears."

"We can say that the humans - and the sabre toothed cat - were living 300,000 years ago in the same area, in the same landscape," said Jordi Serangeli with of the University of Tubingen in Germany. "The humans were hunters but they were not alone; they had to defend themselves from all the big carnivores."

The research  was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

"The discovery illustrates the possible day-to-day challenges that the Schöningen hominins (a region specific ancestor) would have faced and suggests that the wooden spears were not necessarily only used for hunting, but possibly also as a weapon for self-defence," Serangeli said in the report.

Perhaps humans may have actually created the extinction of the big cats? It is quite possible, and the scientists are exploring the possibility.