Scientists uncover giant snake weighing over a ton with an astonishing appetite

While the Green Anaconda is recognised as the current holder of the ‘world’s largest snake’ trophy, it’s evolutionary predecessor simply blows it out of the water.

Known as Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the extinct snake’s fossilised remains were discovered in Cerrejón coal mine in northern Colombia in 2009, and the numbers behind the beast are nightmare-inducing.

Scientists estimate that Titanoboa lived around 58 to 60 million years ago, relatively recently after the extinction of the dinosaurs. It was estimated to grow up to 42 feet long at the time and weigh well over a ton; the colossal snake became the largest of its kind ever discovered.

Scientists stunned at new discovery

Modern boas do not have venom like a cobra or a pit viper, instead killing their prey via suffocation before swallowing them whole. Huge muscles wrap around the prey item - be it a capybara, a tapir or a dog - and feel the expansion of their ribcage as the animal struggles to breathe. At the end of every breath, with the lungs empty, the snake contracts its muscles a little more, tightening its grip and inching the prey closer to the point of no return. Once dead, the snake opens its un-lockable jaw bones and stretches its entire gape around the animal, head first, before the lengthy digestion process begins.

While the likely method of killing via constriction is interesting, it was not what blew the scientists away. That was its diet. Snakes are cold-blooded and therefore cannot control their internal body temperature like us mammals (assuming you’re a homo sapien, dear reader), and instead rely on the environment to do it for them. That’s why you may see a snake camping out in the middle of the road during the morning sunlight hours - they’re warming themselves up to be active later on.

Back to Titanoboa: in order to keep up the metabolism inside its humungous body, the creature would have required a consistently hot climate, with average annual temperatures ranging from 86 to 93°F. This aligns with climate models indicating that the Paleocene neotropical rainforests were significantly warmer than today, likely because of higher atmospheric CO₂ levels in the air at the time. As well as needing the heat, researchers believe Titanoboa lived much like modern day anaconda, spending a huge part of its life in the water.

As for the feeding techniques, the scientists’ estimates were confirmed when they returned to the Cerrejón coal mine and found bones from the upper and lower jaw, palate and braincase, adding to the previously unique fragments of vertebrae we had. New models of the skull put it at 16 inches long, increasing the total body length to around 47 feet. Their other discovery came with the teeth: the scientists found that Titanoboa’s teeth were loosely fit into the jaw, something not seen in any meat-eating relatives.

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Instead, this configuration of the mouth is seen only in snakes that eat fish. Further investigations were made into the skull and all the results came back with one conclusion: Titanoboa was like nothing they had ever seen - it was a fish-eating mega-snake.

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