Monster Snake Slithered at 43 Feet Long

[WriteDown]

Source: Fox News

NEW YORK — A colossal snake about the length of a school bus slithered about South America's rainforests some 60 million years ago, according to an analysis of the skeletal remains of what is now considered the largest snake ever identified.

"It's the biggest snake the world has ever known," said Jason Head, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga and part of an international team who discovered and identified the snake bones.

He added, "The snake's body was so wide that if it were moving down the hall and decided to come into my office to eat me, it would literally have to squeeze through the door."

Fossils of the extinct snake species, now called Titanoboa cerrejonensis, were discovered in the Cerrejon Coal Mine in northern Colombia...

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,487885,00.html

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Probably isn't latest breaking news, but this is too cool.

[Beetwasher]

1. But Did It Fight A Giant Ape?

:shrug:

[YOY]

3. No but it did frighten a very large Harrison Ford

and pissed off a gigantic Samuel L. Jackson.

[Lucky Luciano]

2. Indeed...very cool

"From the fossilized vertebrae, the researchers conservatively estimate the snake weighed about 2,500 pounds (1,140 kg) and measured nearly 43 feet (13 meters) from nose to tail tip."

[Sin]

4. They must have had

some really big apple trees back then.

[sledgehammer]

5. Another animal that missed the last call for the Ark

For further reading pleasure...

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2000/04/03/dinosaurs-on-noahs-ark

[Strathos]

6. Could it talk and was it carrying a fig leaf?

It doesn't hurt to ask. LOL

[No Elephants]

7. Ah, they found the fossilized remains of the Diickchenosaurus!

[proud progressive]

8. excellent point! in fact, this supports the 'theory' of evolution.

this snake was obviously too big for it's own good. it died out and slowly became a black, smelly, worthless liquid. a smaller, shorter, deadlier version eventually grew legs, became fat and bald, and made a fortune from it's dead cousins

[oedura]

12. Please don't insult reptiles...

...by comparing them to Dick Cheney. Thank you.

[Javaman]

9. Meh...

My Uncle was stationed in New Guinea during WWII. He would tell me this story about how one night a python slithered into his "camp" and almost ate one his buddies.

They killed it and ate it. It was 36 feet long. He had a few photos of it. They are now long since gone, but were really cool.

There was enough meat on the thing, he said, that it fed his company and half of another.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Prehistoric 'monster snake' remains discovered (CNN)

(CNN) -- Scientists in Colombia have unearthed the remains of a true prehistoric monster believed to be the biggest snake ever to have lived on Earth.

Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the snake would have weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip -- dwarfing the largest modern pythons and anacondas which can grow to 6 meters (19.5 feet).
***
Based on the snake's size, the team was able to calculate that the mean annual temperature in equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than today, Bloch said.

"Tropical ecosystems of South America were surprisingly different 60 million years ago," said Bloch. "It was a rainforest, like today, but it was even hotter and the cold-blooded reptiles were all substantially larger.

"The result was, among other things, the largest snakes the world has ever seen...and hopefully ever will."

According to Nature.com, snakes are poikilotherms (cold-blooded) that, unlike humans, need heat from their environment to power their metabolism. Therefore research suggests that at the time the region would have had to be no less than 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit for the snake to have survived.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/02/05/giant.snake.colombia/index.html

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. I guess sometimes size matters.

[The Brethren]

13. I'm glad to hear they are "remains".

Just the thought of it will give me nightmares for the next week!


Stimulus Plan ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act") full text: Orig. House version -- http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf Senate version -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_02_The_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009.pdf Spreadsheet of Senate compromise -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_08_UPDATED_Appropriations_Provisions_of_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act.pdf?CFID=4043629&CFTOKEN=40573040 Text of Senate compromise version of fiscal stimulus legislation -- http://readthestimulus.org/amdth1.pdf

[BlooInBloo]

14. Heh. Had some fun with that in GD awhile back...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4980491