Based on the diameter of the fossilized vertebrae, the snake is estimated to be 42 to 45 feet long, said Florida Museum vertebrate paleontologist Jonathan Bloch. Partial skeletons of the giant, boa constrictor-like snake, named Titanoboa cerrejonensis, were found in Colombia by an international team of scientists and are now at the Florida Museum of Natural History. The largest snake the world has ever known – as long as a school bus and as heavy as a small car – ruled tropical ecosystems only 6 million years after the demise of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, according to a new discovery published in the journal Nature. Partial skeletons of the giant, boa constrictor-like snake were found in Colombia by an international team of scientists and studied at the Florida Museum. One-ton snake: This artist’s rendition shows what “Titanoboa,” the largest snake the world has ever known, might have looked like in its natural setting 60 million years ago.
Florida Museum researchers’ discovery of a giant fossilized snake in Colombia reveals a picture of warmer tropics ruled by beasts larger than anyone imagined.