Scientists recently discovered the ancient skeletal remains of a snake in northern Colombia, South America believed to have lived 60 million years ago. The extra-fascinating part of this story is the size of our slithery friend - over 43 FEET LONG! Yes, that is longer than a school bus. It's like a dino-snake!
Paleontologists from the University of Toronto, Mississauga named the species Titanoboa cerrjonensis (after the Cerrejon region of northern Colombia where the remains were found).
- "Analyses of the rocks surrounding the Titanoboa fossils suggest that the behemoth lived on coastal plains in a wet tropical rainforest, the same type of environment frequented today by anacondas," paleontologist Jason Head of the University of Toronto in Mississauga, Ontario, and his colleagues report.
However, the researchers speculate, the climate in which Titanoboa lived was much hotter than today’s. The maximum body size that a snake species can reach is related to the average annual temperature of the environment in which it lives."
Personally, this kind of grosses me out. But one has to admit, it is pretty cool that modern science allows us to learn about and visualize creatures that lived 60 MILLION years ago!
It's also really interesting insight into the previous climate of our planet. Maybe global warming/climate change isn't such an unnatural thing after all... what do you think?
via BoingBoing
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