The snake is as long as a bus

Scientists have found the fossil of the world's largest snake ever, as long as a bus, almost twice the giant python South America and can swallow a bull.

Illustration illustrating giant snake.Photo: BBC.

A group of students and faculty at the University of Toronto (Canada) found 180 fossil ribs of 28 snakes at a coal mine in Cerrejó, northeastern Columbia. By comparing the shape and size of the two most complete skeletons with the giant python bone of the South American (Anaconda), they think they weigh up to 1,135 kg and are about 12.8 m long. Meanwhile, the maximum python length of South America is 6 to 6.5 m. This snake lives 58 to 60 million years from us and is named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by the team.

"They are heavier than a bison and longer than a bus. They can swallow something as big as a cow. A person will be swallowed up in a flash , " said Jack Conrad, a snake expert at the Calendar Museum. Natural history New York said. Jason Head, the lead researcher, said that cerrejonensis Titanoboa snakes can eat ancient crocodiles in the rainforest.

The giant snake's vertebrae (right) are about the same size as a grapefruit, while the backbone of the South American python (left) is only in coins.Photo: Nature.

Among the snakes that exist today, the record of length belongs to a South American python longer than 9 meters. But it is still at least 3.6 meters shorter than a medium sized Titanoboa cerrejonensis.

"With such incredible size, Titanoboa cerrejonensis is the largest snake we've ever known. I think we can call them lords of snakes," said Harry Greene, an evolutionary biologist of Dai. Cornell (New York, USA), speaking.

Unlike humans, snakes need heat from their surroundings to carry out metabolism. Scientists believe that at the time of their survival, the temperature in the region is about 30-34 degrees Celsius, because if they are lower they cannot exist. Most large snakes today live in South America and Southeast Asia, where high temperatures allow them to grow to their maximum body size.

The size of a snake is directly proportional to the environmental temperature in which it lives. Titanoboa cerrejonensis's fossil shows that the equatorial temperature 58-60 million years ago is much higher than today. So we can infer that the Earth was also hotter. With global warming due to the greenhouse effect, will the size of the snake increase over time?

"We will not have a chance to see living-sized snakes like Titanoboa cerrejonensis anymore, because most of their habitats are narrowed by deforestation and urbanization," said lead researcher Jason. Head confirmed.