Giant Snake Preyed on Baby Dinosaurs

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Remains of an enormous snake have been discovered in a 67-million-year-old dinosaur nest, according to a new study. The snake was found coiled around a crushed dinosaur egg and next to what was left of a hatchling titanosaur.

This preserved moment in Cretaceous time provides the first direct evidence of the feeding behavior of a primitive snake, co-author Jason Head told Discovery News. Aside from this discovery, two other similar snake-egg pairings were also found at the site, located in what is now Gujarat in western India.

The 11.5-foot-long snake, described in the latest PLoS Biology, represents a new species, Sanajeh indicus, meaning "ancient-gaped one from the Indian subcontinent."

"It was not necessarily a specialized constrictor, but it clearly grabbed dinosaur hatchlings and gobbled them down," said Head, a paleontologist and assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

"Sauropods laid their eggs in nests covering several hundred miles, so the newly hatched dinosaurs would have been like meatballs on a smorgasbord for the snakes," he added.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/snakes-baby-dinosaurs.html

[Ter]

1. How is 11.5 feet enormous?

The largest snakes today, Anacondas and Reticulated Pythons, can reach 30 feet.