Largest Snake That Ever Lived Was Longer Than a Bus
by John Roach
The world’s biggest snake was a massive anaconda-like beast that slithered through steamy tropical rain forests about 60 million years ago, says a new study that describes the ancient giant. Fossils found in northeastern Colombia’s Cerrejon coal mine indicate the reptile, dubbed Titanoboa cerrejonesis, was at least 42 ft (13 m) long and weighed 2,500 lbs (1,135 kg).
“That’s longer than a city bus and … heavier than a car,” said lead study author Jason Head, a fossil-snake expert at the University of Toronto Mississauga in Canada and a research associate with the Smithsonian Institution.
Previously the biggest snake known was Gigantophis garstini, which was 36 to 38 ft (11 to 11.6 m) long. That snake lived in North Africa about 40 million years ago.
In addition, the snake’s heft indicates that it lived when the tropics were much warmer than they are today, a find that holds potential implications for theories of once and future climate change…
(read more: National Geo) (illustration by Jason Bourque)
