Titanoboa: the 14-meter prehistoric snake

A glimpse into the past, helps us understand animal and human nature a little better.In this case, let's talk about Titanoboa, an impressive-sized prehistoric snake.Want to know more? We'll tell you!

Meet the 14-meter snake: the Titanoboa

When the fossil of a gigantic snake was found in the Colombian tropics, specifically in the mine Cerrejon in the Department of La Guajira of Colombia, we were able to meet the Titanoboa, a snake 14 meters long that lived there about 58 million years ago.

In previous Eras, Cerrejon was an immense swampy jungle full of a variety of animal and plant species.Precisely for that reason, today it is one of the richest and most important fossil deposits in the world , providing scientists with a unique instant of the geological moment when dinosaurs had just disappeared and a new environment was emerging.

Titanoboa: the 14-meter prehistoric snake

But who was the king of this jungle? It was a snake over 14 meters long and weighing more than a ton.Yes, the Titanoboa, the giant snake, resembled something like a modern boa constrictor, but followed a behavior pattern similar to that of the water anaconda today. Scientists call her Titanoboa cerrejonensis .

Being the queen of the jungle, Titanoboa lived in the swamp and was a fearsome predator, able to eat any animal that would catch his attention. The thickest part of his body would be almost as tall as a man's waist.

It was the greatest snake of all time, and if its amazing size was not enough to dazzle anyone , its existence helps to understand the history of life on earth and possibly even to anticipate the future.

In a joint investigation by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Florida Museum of Natural History, they found indications that around about sixty titanoboas lived in the area .In addition, it was possible to know that the weather conditions of the time were very different in that swamp.

Do you want to see a Titanoboa? You can do it! Or at least one replica.In the Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian of Washington you can find a real size recreation of the largest (and creepy) snake in the world.

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Images: John Quick; Ryan Somma

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