Speaking of giant reptiles, we most often imagine a boa constrictor or an anaconda. Scientists have long assumed that in the prehistoric world there were larger animals of this class. These guesses received scientific confirmation only in 2009 thanks to an unexpected archaeological find. And now we know for sure that the titanoboa snake is the largest snake that has ever existed on our planet.
Sensational archaeological find
In 2009, during excavations, fossils of a giant snake were discovered in the coal mines of Colombia. The remains were in fairly good condition and made it possible to study in detail an animal previously unknown to science. The specialists managed to collect and restore the complete
The ancient reptile belongs to the Paleocene era. The giant serpent was given the name "Titanoboa" (Titanoboa cerrejonensis), which literally translates as "Giant Boa". Scientists suggest that these monsters appeared about 10 million years after it turns out that giant reptiles lived on the territory of modern Colombia about 60 million years ago.
How long is a giant snake?
Fossils found during archaeological excavations make it possible to completely reconstruct the appearance and outstanding size of the ancient monster. Scientists have found that the titanoboa snake reached a length of 15 meters. At the same time, the thickness of the body of the reptile exceeded the waist circumference of the average person. At its thickest point, the girth of the snake's body could reach 100 centimeters.
The direct descendants of the titanoboa are modern boas. Presumably, the ancient monster also wrapped and squeezed its prey in fatal embraces. But during the meal, the extinct titanoboa snake looked more like a modern anaconda. This reptile could swallow almost any animal and was at the top of the food chain. According to experts, the weight of a well-dined titanoboa could exceed 1 ton.
Like its descendants, the titanoboa snake was not venomous. Due to its size and well-developed muscles, this reptile easily coped with adult alligators.
The discovery of the fossilized remains of a giant snake gave reason to think about climatic conditions in animal habitats. Most scientists agree that the reptile felt great in a hot and humid tropical climate. On the other hand, some experts believe that mean annual temperature in the study area has risen by several degrees over the past millions of years. According to their calculations, the giant snake produced too much metabolic heat during the digestion of food. At excessively elevated temperatures, the reptile would simply overheat.
Scientists agree on only one thing, that the titanoboa is an extinct species of snakes that can hunt in water and on land. Despite its fantastic size, the reptile moved as fast as its modern descendants. And this means that the animal chosen by the snake as prey simply had no chance.
Titanoboa in art and popular culture
Legends of giant snakes are present in the cultural traditions of many countries of the world. Who knows, maybe our ancestors did sometimes meet with descendants of titanoboa, larger than modern boas?
The skeleton of a giant ancient snake is now exhibited in the New York Museum, and everyone can see it with their own eyes. IN National Museum natural history (Washington) you can see the amazing sculpture. There, in the middle of the exhibition hall, a titanoboa snake, made in its real scale, swallows an alligator.
The National Geographic Society has created a detailed documentary telling about a giant reptile. Titanoboa also appears in modern art in the form of an ancient creepy monster. For example, this snake can be seen in the second episode of the TV series Jurassic Portal: New World.
Do giant snakes exist today?
More recently, the very fact of the existence of such a large snake was only a bold hypothesis. What if animals like the titanoboa still live in the least explored corners of our planet? Even authoritative researchers put forward a similar assumption from time to time. However, to date it has not been confirmed.
The boa constrictor and the anaconda remain the record holders in the world of creeps. Descendants of the legendary titanoboa - modern pythons - usually have a length of up to 10 meters. Anaconda is considered the heaviest snake, the weight of an individual can reach 95 kilograms.
It is not easy to imagine an ancient giant by looking at modern photos of snakes. The Titanoboa was longer than a standard passenger bus, and could easily swallow a grown man.
The largest snake in the history of the Earth, the titanoboa is a terrible South American monster that appeared a little later than the era of dinosaurs.
In the last decade, scientists working in open-pit coal mines have discovered the remains of a monster that can terrify even the most daredevils, except perhaps for passionate fans of reptiles. The monster named Titanoboa cerrejonensis- a giant relative of modern boas. The length of the titanoboa reached 15 meters, and the approximate weight, according to scientists, could be 1135 kg.
For comparison: the largest snake that has survived to our time, the reticulated python, grows up to 8.8 m, and the heaviest giant anaconda weighs no more than 100 kg. In addition, the body girth of the titanoboa reached 90 cm: this snake was not only the longest and heaviest, but also the thickest! In size, the ancient reptile overshadows any of its modern relatives.
The Titanoboa was a product of what is known as the greenhouse period, when the Earth's temperature soared shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs. The peak of the greenhouse period occurred approximately 58-60 million years ago, in the middle of the Paleocene. If titanoboa were cold-blooded animals, like modern snakes, then, according to scientists, they could live in conditions where the average annual temperature did not fall below 30-34 ° C. However, some experts believe that the huge mass helped the titanoboa retain heat, so such a monster was able to survive at lower temperatures.
Like its modern counterparts, this huge snake could go without food for quite some time, but when it ate, it ate A LOT! The monster squeezed its prey ten times harder than a boa constrictor, and thanks to its wide-opening jaws, it could swallow the “lunch” whole...
According to one hypothesis, this terrible predator hunted large crocodiles that lived among marshes and swamps.
a brief description of
Title: Titanoboa.
Latin name: Titanoboa cerrejonensis.
Period: 58-60 million years ago.
Family: False-legged (boa constrictors).
Size: Length - up to 15 meters, body girth - 90 centimeters.
Habitat: Tropical swamp forests.
Places of finds: Coal mines of Sorrejon (Colombia).
Millions of years after the disappearance of the dinosaurs, there was a species of snake that, with its gigantic size alone, excites the mind. 60-58 million years ago lived in the swampy jungles of Colombia Titanoboa. A snake like a boa constrictor reached a length of 15 meters and weighed up to a ton.
Size Titanoboa could be attributed to the climate in which he lived. Warmer climates usually mean more vegetation, which means more prey, which also outnumbered prey living in cooler conditions.
Canadian and American zoologists, having done a comparative analysis of the skeleton, came to the conclusion that the snake could reach up to 13 meters in length and weigh more than a ton. The most large snake, which has survived to our time, the reticulated python, reaches 8.7 meters in length. The smallest snake, Leptotyphlops carlae, is only 10 centimeters long.
Vertebra of Titanoboa and modern medium snake
This colossal snake looked like a modern common boa constrictor, but acted more like today's anaconda living in the Amazon jungle. It was a slippery swamp dweller and a huge predator capable of eating any animal it hunted. The diameter of his body was close to the waist of a man of our time.
In the swampy jungle, the life of the titanoboa was surprisingly long due to the constant incessant rain, abundant vegetation and living creatures. Deep-water rivers allowed the snake to both go to the depths and crawl around palm trees and rolling jungles.
The river basin in which the titanoboa fed was teeming with giant tortoises and crocodiles of at least three different species. Also lived here giant fish, three times the size of the current inhabitants of the Amazon.
On March 22, 2012, a 14-meter reconstruction of the Titanoboa skeleton, created for the Smithsonian Channel's Titanoboa-themed non-fiction program Titanoboa: Monster Snake, was unveiled at New York's Grand Central Station.
Snakes, like other reptiles, have lived on Earth for tens of millions of years, but tracing their evolutionary origins has become a huge challenge for paleontologists. In the next 11 paragraphs of the article, you will find photos and descriptions of various ancient snakes, ranging from dinylysium to the largest prehistoric snake in the world - the titanoboa.
1. Dinilisia
Habitat: woodlands of South America;
historical period: late Cretaceous period (90-85 million years ago);
Size and weight: about 1.80-3m long and 5-10kg;
diet: small animals;
Distinctive characteristics: moderate size; dull skull.
The makers of BBC: Walking with Dinosaurs were pretty knowledgeable about prehistoric reptiles, so it's unforgivable that the last episode of Death of a Dynasty (1999) featured a huge bug involving the dinylysia snake.
This prehistoric snake has been shown to be a threat to young tyrannosaurs, despite the fact that: firstly, dinylysia lived 10 million years earlier than Tyrannosaurus Rex, and secondly, this snake was native to South America, while T -Rex lived in North America.
2. Epodophis (Eupodophis descouensi)
Habitat
historical period
Size and weight: about 1m in length;
diet: small animals;
Distinctive characteristics: small size; tiny hind legs.
Epodophis is a classic transitional form between lizards and legless snakes. These Cretaceous reptiles had tiny (about 2 cm) hind legs, with a distinctive femur and tibia. Ironically, the epodophis and two other genera (chaasiophis and pachyrahis) of fossil snakes equipped with rudimentary legs were discovered in the Near East, a clear breeding ground for snakes, 100 million years ago.
3. Gigantophis
Habitat: woodlands of North Africa and South Asia;
historical period: at the end of the Eocene (40-35 million years ago);
Size and weight: up to 10 m in length and up to 500 kg;
diet: small animals;
Distinctive characteristics: big size; capacious jaws.
Approximately 10 meters long and weighing about half a ton, the prehistoric Gigantophis snake was until recently considered the largest snake ever living in the world, until the remains of the ancient titanoboa snake, much larger (15 m in length and weighing about a ton).
4. Haasiofis
Habitat: woodlands of the Middle East;
historical period: late Cretaceous period (100-90 million years ago);
Size and weight: about 1m in length;
diet: small marine animals;
Distinctive characteristics: moderate size; tiny hind limbs.
Some paleontologists believe that the haasiophis was related to the older snakes of the genus Pachyrachis, but most of the evidence (mainly related to the shape of the skull and structure of the teeth) places these snakes in a separate genus.
Habitat: woodlands of South America, Western Europe, Africa and Madagascar;
historical period: Late Cretaceous-Pleistocene (90-2 Ma)
Size and weight: 3-9 m in length and weighing 2-20 kg;
diet: small animals;
Distinctive characteristics: moderate to large size; the structure of the vertebrae.
As you can guess from the unusually wide geographic and temporal range of snakes in the genus madtsoia (various species of madtsoia span a span of 90 million years), paleontologists are far from sorting out the evolutionary relationships of these prehistoric snakes.
6. Nyash (Najash rionegrina)
Habitat: woodlands of South America;
historical period: Late Cretaceous (90 million years ago);
Size and weight: about 1m in length;
diet: small animals;
Distinctive characteristics: moderate size; small hind limbs.
Unlike other genera of basal snakes: epodophis, pachyrahis and haasiophis, which carried out most their life in the water, snakes of the genus Nayash, led an exclusively terrestrial way of life.
7. Pachyrahis
Habitat: rivers and lakes of the Middle East;
historical period: Early Cretaceous period (130-120 million years ago);
Size and weight: up to 1 m in length and weighing about 1 kg;
diet: a fish;
Distinctive characteristics: long serpentine body; small hind legs.
Pachyrahis is an ideal intermediate form between lizards and snakes: these ancient reptiles possessed an exclusively serpentine body, complete with scales, a python-like head, and a pair of vestigial hind limbs located a few centimeters from the end of the tail.
8. Sanayeh (Sanajeh indicus)
Habitat: woodlands of India;
historical period: late Cretaceous period (70-65 million years ago);
Size and weight: up to 3.5 m in length and weighing 10-20 kg;
diet: small dinosaurs;
Distinctive characteristics: moderate size; limited articulation of the jaws.
Sanaeh (Sanajeh indicus) significantly inferior in size to the world's largest prehistoric snake, but this is the only species that hunted dinosaurs with great confidence (mainly cubs and small dinosaur species up to 50 cm in length).
9. Tetrapodophis
Habitat: woodlands of South America;
historical period: Early Cretaceous (120 million years ago);
Size and weight: 30 cm long and weighing several hundred grams;
diet: insects;
Distinctive characteristics: small size; four vestigial limbs.
Tetrapodophis has a dubious origin - it was allegedly discovered in Brazil, but no one can say exactly where and by whom, as well as how the fossils got to Germany. Some paleontologists doubt that tetrapodophis is a real prehistoric snake.
10 Titanoboa
Habitat: woodlands of South America;
historical period: Paleogene period (60 million years ago);
Size and weight: up to 15 m in length and weighing about 1 t;
diet: animals;
Distinctive characteristics: giant size; camouflage color.
Titanoboa is the largest prehistoric snake in the world that has ever lived on our planet. She reached up to 15 m in length and weighed about 1 ton. The only reason why she did not hunt dinosaurs is that the titanoboa appeared several million years after their death. In the article "," you can get acquainted with a lot of interesting information about these giant snakes.
11. Wonambi
Habitat: plains of Australia;
historical period: Pleistocene epoch (2 million - 40 thousand years ago);
Size and weight: 5-6 m in length and weighing about 50 kg;
diet: animals;
Distinctive characteristics: big size; primitive head and jaws.
Although the Australian wonambi were not directly related to modern pythons and boas, these snakes had a similar hunting style: squeezing their muscular coils around unsuspecting animals and slowly choking them to death.
Titanoboa is a prehistoric giant snake, about the size of an elongated school bus. With a mass of about 1 ton and a length of up to 15 meters, these were real monsters among snakes that have ever lived on Earth. In this article, you will discover 10 unique facts about the largest snake species on the planet from the Paleocene era.
1 Titanoboa appeared 5 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs
After the death of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, it took millions of years for life to return to Earth. Introduced during the Paleocene era, the titanoboa (along with prehistoric tortoises and crocodiles) was one of the first giant reptiles to regain ecological niches vacant after the death of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, pterosaurs and marine reptiles.
2. Titanoboa was a boa constrictor, but hunted like a crocodile
It can be assumed that this giant prehistoric monster hunted like a modern boa constrictor, wrapping itself around the victim and squeezing until she suffocated. In fact, the titanoboa attacked its prey in a more dramatic manner. It was partially submerged in water, and then, when the victim was in range, the giant snake with a sudden throw, grabbed the unfortunate prey with its massive jaws around the trachea.
3. Before the discovery of the remains of the titanoboa, the king of snakes was Gigantophis
Until recently, the 10 meter Gigantophis was considered the largest snake ever to have lived on Earth, until its reputation was overshadowed by the Titanoboa, which appeared several million years earlier. But still, Gigantophis was no less dangerous for prey than its much larger predecessor. Paleontologists believe that this African snake preyed on the distant ancestor of the elephant - meriteria.
4 Titanoboa Was Twice As Long As Anaconda
If we compare titanoboa with modern giant snake th - anaconda, then the prehistoric monster was 2 times longer and four times heavier than its contemporary. The maximum length of the anaconda is about 7 m, and the weight is slightly more than 200 kg. Compared to most modern snakes, the titanoboa was a real "behemoth": for example, the average cobra weighs only about 5 kg, and can easily fit into a small suitcase.
5. The thickest part of the Titanoboa's body was up to 1 meter in diameter.
Given the length and mass of a prehistoric snake, the laws of physics and biology could not allow an even distribution of weight along the entire length of the animal's body. Titanoboa was noticeably thicker towards the center of the body (up to 1 m), which provided sufficient capacity for large prey living in those days.
6 Titanoboa Shared Habitat With Giant Tortoise
The early Paleocene swamps of South America are not ideal for the faint of heart time travelers. Remains of monotonous turtles carbonemys were found in the same area as the titanoboa fossils. It is possible that these two giant reptiles accidentally crossed paths from time to time.
7 Titanoboa Lived In A Hot And Humid Climate
South America recovered fairly quickly after global change climate as a result of an asteroid impact on the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, which threw clouds of dust obscuring the sun. During the Paleocene epoch, present-day Peru and Colombia had a tropical climate with high humidity and average air temperatures ideal for cold-blooded reptiles such as the titanoboa.
8. The color of the titanoboa looked like a dirty car mat.
Unlike some modern poisonous snakes, the bright colors would do no good for a prehistoric snake. In fact, the titanoboa had an unremarkable coloration that helped the giant snake to blend in with environment. If you were miraculously transported to South America the Paleocene era, most likely, the titanoboa bit you in half before you realized that it was not algae in front of you.
9. A life-size model of a titanoboa can be seen at Grand Central Station in New York
In March 2012, the Smithsonian Institution installed a 14 meter titanoboa model in the world's largest and busiest train station, Grand Central Station in New York, USA.
10. Despite its size, the titanoboa was a "shrimp" compared to most dinosaurs.
You may be wondering: why all the fuss about a giant prehistoric snake, the mass of which reached only 1 ton, when some types of dinosaurs weighed a hundred times more? Perhaps the fear of many peoples of snakes seems irrational, but meeting a huge snake that attacks like a crocodile (even considering the fact of its diminutiveness relative to dinosaurs) would not be the most pleasant event in your life.
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