5/30/2023 0 Comments Anaconda snake size![]() That was Gigantophis, a snake that lived 20 million years ago in Africa. Until Titanoboa’s discovery, the largest snake fossil ever found came in at 33 feet and weighed 1,000 pounds. History’s largest snake simply has no equal among modern snakes. Though scientists have debated the merits of the theory (if it’s true, some argue, why aren’t the lizards of our hottest jungles today similarly massive?), there’s no denying that Titanoboa was enormous. If it’s always hot, a cold-blooded creature’s metabolism will run at maximum efficiency - allowing them to dedicate that extra energy to growing larger and sustaining a larger body. Millions of years and dozens of feet of rock later, the bone became part of rich coal fields - which meant there might be others nearby.Ĭristóbal Alvarado Minic/Flickr This is your ordinary, run-of-the-mill anaconda. Their working theory was that the massive snake to which the vertebra belonged had been caught in a mudslide that buried it. It was an incredible find, and researchers immediately began combing the mines for more fragments of the jungle titan. They also uncovered a massive vertebra - a vertebra far too large to belong to any jungle serpent on record. More digging uncovered remarkable specimens: giant turtles and crocodiles, and some of the first bananas, avocados, and bean plants that ever sprouted on planet earth. Further study revealed that the fossil belonged to the Paleocene era - which meant the mine might once have been the site of one of the world’s first rainforests. The discovery was an intriguing one: it suggested that once upon a time, the area had been home to a sprawling jungle. The story of its reappearance began in 2002 when a student uncovered a fossilized leaf on a visit to the massive coal mine at Cerrejón in Colombia. Titanoboa is a shockingly recent discovery. Uncovering The Monstrous Snake Of Prehistoric South America It could kill you before you even had a chance to scream. What happened next scientists agree on: the great snake swallowed its giant prey whole - and if you had the terrifying experience of staring into Titanoboa’s mouth, you would be no exception. Wikimedia Commons Imagine that alligator tail is your arm. Some scientists think it killed by constricting and asphyxiating its prey, while others argue that though it looked like a boa constrictor (the resemblance that gave it its name), it behaved like an anaconda, lurking in the shallows and ambushing unsuspecting animals with a stunning blow. In the hot, humid jungle, Titanoboa fit right in: its brown skin camouflaged it perfectly as it slunk through muddy waters. At its thickest point, Titanoboa was three feet wide, which is longer than a human arm. That’s as long as a semitrailer you see on highways and about twice as heavy as a polar bear. This prehistoric species grew up to 50 feet in length and weighed as much as 2,500 pounds. ![]() ![]() ![]() The death of the giant reptiles left a vacuum at the top of the food chain, and Titanoboa gladly stepped up. Titanoboa, the enormous serpent of legend, thrived in the tropical jungles of South America some five million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. See the humans in the background for a comparison in size. Ryan Sommma/Flickr A Titanoboa on display. ![]()
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