A Challenger for the Title of Biggest. Snake. EVAR.

[mcwetboy]

Titanoboa may have a rival for the title of largest known snake to have ever existed. Scientists at IIT Roorkee have reported the discovery of the fossil of a large Eocene madtsoiid snake in western India. Like most snake fossils, it’s a set of vertebrae (most snake bones are far too delicate to survive). Named Vasuki indicus, its estimated length of 11 to 15 metres is within the range of that of Titanoboa cerrejonensis (12 to 14 metres) and might even have exceeded it. Titanoboa is a boa from Paleocene Colombia whereas Vasuki lived around 10 million years later, and moreover madtsoiids were not boas, so there isn’t much in common between them except their preposterous size.

Mirrored from Jonathan Crowe.