Snakes have never really been an object of fear for me personally in the past. Although, these reptiles have been the main fear of many people that I know. I have always thought that if you left them alone, they will leave you alone. If they do attack, I could probably out run them easily. However, this all changed when I learned of Titanoboa.
Imagine yourself in a world of dense swampy jungle, where the dinosaurs are gone, the earth was much warmer, and reptiles ruled the world. [1] This was Cerrejón (located in modern-day Columbia) approximately 58-milion years ago. [1] This was the world where Titanoboa, the monster snake, ruled.
Dense jungle from http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?t=55486
How was this prehistoric dead monarch discovered? It was discovered by a graduate student, Alex Hastings, when he was looking through fossils from Cerrejón in a box labelled “crocodile”. He noticed a very large and strange vertebra, and realized they this vertebra was not from a crocodile. Hastings and a fellow graduate student, Jason Bourque, compared the mysterious vertebra to the vertebra of a modern-day anaconda. The two found that the two bones were similar in appearance even though the anaconda’s vertebra was much smaller. [2] This discovery led to further investigation and with the eventual identification of Titanoboa.
What was this titan of the past like? It turns out that the size of Titanoboa may have been around 42 to 49 feet long, and could have weighted around 2,500 pounds. [2] According to the video below, the Titanoboa killed its prey by constriction. It delivered a powerful squeeze of 400 pounds per square inch. The video below puts that number into perspective, they say that it is like having three Eiffel towers stacked on top of one another crushing you.
How did such a titan exist? It seems a little unbelievable to imagine a snake of this caliber roaming this world. Well, it turns out that Earth, during Titanoboa’s reign was much different from our own. The Earth that Titanoboa lived in, had 50 percent more carbon dioxide than today, which in turn results in a Earth much warmer than today. [2] Since, all reptiles are cold-blooded; their size essentially depends on how warm their environment is. [2] This fact, allows us to safely say that as long as we get global warming under control, new titan snakes will not appear.
Was this titan snake, at the top of the food chain? Other fossils were found at Cerrejón, including fossils of giant crocodiles and turtles. [3] These giant crocodiles could have been a possible predator to Titanoboa, but this snake was at the top of the food chain because it could easily constrict and devour these massive crocodiles whole. [3] Despite the size and ferocity of Titanoboa, it probably would not be able to dethrone the modern day apex predator, Human beings.
A scaled model of Titanoboa from http://www.dogonews.com/2012/3/26/pre-historic-titanoboa-rattles-new-york-commuters
-Dominic
