Fossil of Giant Snake Found in South America

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:27:29 +0000

Where: Cerrejon, Colombia

February 4, 2009 : ‘Nature’ journal reports that the snake, named ‘Titanoboa cerrejonensis’ by the scientists who found the remains, would have had a 13-metre-long body and weighed 1,140 kilograms, making it the largest snake on record. A mathematical ratio between the size of vertebrae and the length of the body in living snakes was used by the team to estimate the size. The world’s heaviest snakes, green anacondas, weigh only 250 kilograms, and the longest, reticulated pythons, measure 10 metres at the most. Titanboa would have been similar to a boa constrictor, and could have swallowed a whole cow. What its prey was has not been established, but it would have needed to eat a lot.

Giant Snakes on Pitara Kids Network

Fossil of Giant Snake Found in South America