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Biggest. Snake. Ever.
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Published: February 5, 2009
Fossils from northeastern Colombia reveal the biggest snake ever discovered: a behemoth that stretched 42 to 45 feet long, reaching more than 2,500 pounds. Titanoboa cerrejonensis, which acted like an anaconda, breaks the snake length record by about 11 feet, said paleontologist Jason Head of the University of Toronto Missisauga.
The beast probably munched on ancient relatives of crocodiles in its rainforest home some 58 million to 60 million years ago, said Head, author of a report in today's issue of the journal Nature.
The beast was revealed in early 2007 at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. Bones collected in Colombia were being unpacked. Graduate students "realized they were looking at the bones of a snake ... a really big snake," said co-author Jonathan Bloch.
The Associated Press
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