Fossil of Giant Snake Found

Fossil of giant snake found

The fossilised remains of what has been described as the world's largest snake known to science was discovered at the Cerrajon Coal Mine in Colombia.
The layers of rock have yielded the remains of the aptly named Titanoboa cerrejonensis

Beleived to be an ancient relative of today's boas, this giant snake lived in the rainforests of Colombia between 58 million to 60 million years ago.
Based on the evidence, paleontologists estimated the length of Titanoboa cerrjonensis to be around 13m (43ft). This giant weighed in at around 1.2 tons (2500lbs) and had a diameter of 1m.

Paleontologists beleive, that due to its size, Titanoboa cerrejonensis would have shared a similar aquatic lifestyle to that of today's Anaconda.
The discovery also implies that, due to snakes being ectotherms (cold-blooded), the climate would have had to be at least 6-8 degrees warmer in order for Titanoboa to thermo-regulate efficiently.

The previous record for the world's largest snake belonged to a creature that lived about 40 million years ago till as recently as 40 000 years ago named Gigantophis garstini.
Relics of Gigantophis have been found in Libya as well as Egypt.
Titanoboa breaks the record by about 3.3m (11ft).

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