Fossils of gigantic snakes found in Columbia

[Judi Lynn]

Fossils of gigantic snakes found in Columbia
By: PTI Date: 2009-02-04

Gigantic snakes as long as 13 meters and as heavy as a medium sedan car, which can make the anacondas and pythons of today look tiny, once slithered in the rain forests of the planet, latest discovery of fossils in Latin American country Colombia reveals.

The 60-million year-old fossils found in Columbia by an international team of scientists are a proof that these reptiles were dotting the landscape of the South American rain forests six million years after the extinction of the dreaded predator dinosaur 'Tyrannosaurus rex'.

Christened as "Titanoboa" these 1,100 kg monster snake was a non-venomous constrictor, like anacondas and boas, ate giant turtles and crocodiles which were the other prominent reptile species in rain forests during Paleocene Epoch, five to six million years immediately following the extinction of dinosaurs from the Earth.

"This new species of snake is the largest ever known, living or fossil. The largest living snakes are pythons and anacondas, which normally grow up to about six meters long and occasionally get as big as nine meters. The largest fossil snakes known up to now got to be about 10 meters long. This new snake was normally about 13 meters long, so by far the largest known," said David Polly, geologist from Indiana University, US.

More:
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/feb/040209-fossils-snakes.htm

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Ancient snake fossil find in Colombia

New York (AP): Never mind the snake that menaced Jennifer Lopez in the 1997 movie "Anaconda." Not even Hollywood could match a new discovery from the ancient world.

Fossils from northeastern Colombia reveal the biggest snake ever discovered: a behemoth that stretched 12.8-13.7 meters long, reaching more than 1,100 kilograms.

"This thing weighs more than a bison and is longer than a city bus," enthused snake expert Jack Conrad of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was familiar with the find.

"It could easily eat something the size of a cow. A human would just be toast immediately."

More:
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200902041751.htm

[newfie11]

1. Man I hope no mad scientist clones one of them n/t

[LiberalEsto]

2. Eeeeeeeeeeee!

:scared:

Glad I wasn't around back then.

[LynzM]

3. Oh, wow!!

Would be neat to see, if I were on the other side of a very, very large wall!

[xchrom]

4. ...

:scared:

[Judi Lynn]

5. Prehistoric snake was as long as Tyrannosaurus

Prehistoric snake was as long as Tyrannosaurus
Reuters | 02/05/2009 3:31 PM

WASHINGTON – It was the all-time titan of snakes -- a monster as long as a Tyrannosaurus rex that stalked a steamy South American rain forest after the demise of the dinosaurs and ate crocodiles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

An international team of scientists on Wednesday announced the discovery in northern Colombia of fossil remains of the largest snake ever known to have lived. It is named Titanoboa cerrejonensis, meaning titanic boa from Cerrejon, the open-pit coal mine where its fossils were found.

Titanoboa was at least 43 feet long, weighed 2,500 pounds (1,140 kg) and its massive body was at least 3 feet (1 meter) wide, they wrote in the journal Nature.

It lived 58 million to 60 million years ago, when Earth's animal kingdom was still recovering from the mass extinction that doomed the dinosaurs and many other creatures 65 million years ago when an asteroid hit near the Yucatan coast of Mexico. It may have been the largest non-ocean vertebrate then on Earth.

More:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/02/05/09/prehistoric-snake-was-long-tyrannosaurus

[Judi Lynn]

6. The articles only get scarier! "One-tonne 40ft snake prowled superhot prehistoric jungles"

One-tonne 40ft snake prowled superhot prehistoric jungles
By Lewis Page
Posted in Biology, 5th February 2009 11:59 GMT

Scientists say they have discovered fossil remains of a colossal prehistoric snake that once roamed the superheated Paleocene jungles of South America. The one-tonne Titanoboa cerrejonensis would have been more than 40 feet long and ten feet around at its thickest.

~snip~
The scientists believe that the Titanoboa would be like a vastly enlarged version of modern boa constrictors or anacondas, crushing its prey to death in its mighty coils before devouring it. Even ordinary anacondas have been known on occasion to perform gut-busting feats such as scoffing entire jaguars, so the Titanoboa would presumably have been quite capable of polishing off much larger creatures when it felt seriously hungry.

~snip~
In other words, should global warming trends continue upward, the world's tropical jungles might flourish rather than dying out - and so turn all the increased CO2 into oxygen. That's assuming, of course, that the rainforests have not all been cut down and turned into biofuel plantations or something.

However, there might be a downside in the form of titanic snakes able to crumple up small buildings like paper cups and devour human beings like canapés.

More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/05/mega_snake_liked_it_hot/