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Titanoboa

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 31 CitizenGeek


    I wish there was some kind of visual representation - that's always more entertaining :/


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,255 ✭✭✭anonymous_joe


    Saw a green anaconda (in a zoo thing :P) when I was away. The most malevolent looking thing I've seen. Kinda glad these are extinct. :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    I wish there was some kind of visual representation - that's always more entertaining :/

    Here is an artist's interpretation of what the snake would look like if it was around today:

    20923614a527529235b485675526l.gif


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,259 ✭✭✭starn


    The fossilised remains of a whopping 13 meter long snake have been found in a site in Columbia

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0204/breaking66.htm
    Scientists have uncovered remains of the biggest snake ever known at the site of an ancient South American rain forest in Colombia.

    Titanoboa cerrejonensis measured 13 metres, weighed as much as a small car, and had a body more than a metre thick.

    The monster relative of the boa constrictor lived in northern Colombia 60 million years ago.

    Palaeontologist Dr Jonathan Bloch, from the University of Florida at Gainesville, US, who co-led the expedition to Colombia, said: “Truly enormous snakes really spark people’s imagination, but reality has exceeded the fantasies of Hollywood."

    The 1.27-tonne snake could only have grown so large if temperatures at the equator were hotter than they are now.

    Scientists estimate that a cold-blooded serpent of Titanoboa’s size would have required an average annual temperature of 30C to 34C (86F to 93F) to survive. By comparison, the average yearly temperature in the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena is about 28C (82F).

    “The discovery of Titanoboa challenges our understanding of past climates and environments, as well as the biological limitations on the evolution of giant snakes,” said Dr Jason Head, from the University of Toronto in Canada, one of the authors who described the find today in the journal Nature .

    Titanoboa’s enormous vertebrae were discovered by Dr Bloch’s team in the Cerrejon coal mine in northern Colombia, along with fossilised plant material from the oldest known rain forest in the Americas.

    Fossil bones of giant turtles and extinct crocodiles, which may have been the snake’s prey, were also found.

    “Prior to our work, there had been no fossil vertebrates found between 65 million and 55 million years ago in tropical South America, leaving us with a very poor understanding of what life was like in the northern Neotropics,” said Dr Bloch. “Now we have a window into the time just after the dinosaurs went extinct and can actually see what the animals replacing them were like.”


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    223558_1.jpg?ts=1233839748

    Titanoboa, is it just me or are they running out of imaginative names for prehistoric creatures.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,759 ✭✭✭✭dlofnep


    Just read there on another site.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/05/mega_snake_liked_it_hot/

    The longest snakes today record at about 35-40 feet, but they weighed only about one tenth of that bad boy!




  • Yep,
    You really wouldn't want to be staring down the mouth of that thing! :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    On the left we have the vertabrae from a 17 foot (5.2m) long anaconda, being completely dwarfed by the same bone from a Titanoboa!

    090204-02-giant-snake-pictures_big.jpg

    :eek:


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,523 ✭✭✭✭Nerin




  • Registered Users Posts: 9,820 ✭✭✭grames_bond


    enough is enough....i have had it with these muthaf*ckin Titanoboa's on this muthaf*ckin plane!!

    Samuel-L-Jackson.jpg


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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,076 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    In colombia scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of a 'bus sized' (rather disappointingly only in length :)) ancient cousin of modern boas stretching some 13 meters in length and tipping the scales at about one tonne.

    Possibly crocodile eating as well :cool:

    http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=supersized-serpent


    edit: super-snake mega-merge,
    Galv


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,076 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    Hmm, methinks Scientific American needs to change the name of their RSS feeds from news to history. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    marco_polo wrote: »
    Hmm, methinks Scientific American needs to change the name of their RSS feeds from news to history. :)

    You mean prehistory ;) :pac: :p

    Had a read of the Scientific American article. It's very short. (the coverage here at boards has been much better! :cool:)


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    The latest research into the physiology of Titanoboa indicates that Colombia's climate may well have been significantly warmer than previously thought.

    http://www.physorg.com/news168536616.html


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Article about the habitat Titanoboa lived in. Apparently forests back then did not have the same biodiversity as modern ones.


  • Registered Users Posts: 261 ✭✭Satyr_The_Great


    Ive seen the documentary on that fossil, pretty cool me thinks. It makes my yellow anaconda look like a dwarf.


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Following on from our reports on the prehistoric super snake called Titanoboa, evidence has emerged of it's battles with crocodiles:
    But if you're hoping for a prehistoric clash of the titans, you're out of luck: The 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) crocodile relative—called Cerrejonisuchus improcerus—wouldn't have stood a fighting chance against the 45-foot-long (13.7-meter-long) Titanoboa cerrejonesis, researchers say.

    Full article here.

    Cerrejonisuchus_improcerus1.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭Kess73


    A time travelling Deinosuchus would have been needed against that chap. :)


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Kess73 wrote: »
    A time travelling Deinosuchus would have been needed against that chap. :)

    And even so it would probably be in trouble, if we consider the size of some of the gators killed by pythons in the Everglades!

    It's a shame that Chubutophis and Madtsoia are so little known; some remains of these suggest they could grow around as large as Titanoboa... and some species of Madtsoia even coexisted with dinosaurs!!


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    It's a dyrosaurid, part of an extinct family of crocodilians, and it measured six meters long, which would make it a very big crocodile today, but a rather small prehistoric one (despite the press calling it a "giant croc").
    It is possible that this crocodilian was an occassional food item for the gigantic snake. It fed mostly on fish and its name is Acherontisuchus, which is pretty cool (the Acheron or "river of pain" was the main river of Hades in Greek mythology; the spirits of the dead had to cross the Acheron in Charon's boat to reach their final resting place).

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/110916-prehistoric-crocodile-new-species-largest-snake-titanoboa-science/

    Here's a pic of Acherontisuchus and a Titanoboa that fortunately, doesn´t seem big or hungry enough to pay it much attention.

    dyrosaurid-illustration-crocodile_40354_600x450.jpg


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  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Always hated that dryosaurids have nothing to do with this guy:
    Dryosaurus_WWD.jpg&sa=X&ei=hD93TqWbB8Ou8gOWmKTwDQ&ved=0CAYQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNEVd03Mno5nj8N6Dfiz9feobi14sA


    It's really weird how nowadays a 6 meter croc would be a super heavyweight. Back then he'd just be a middleweight.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Always hated that dryosaurids have nothing to do with this guy:
    Dryosaurus_WWD.jpg&sa=X&ei=hD93TqWbB8Ou8gOWmKTwDQ&ved=0CAYQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNEVd03Mno5nj8N6Dfiz9feobi14sA


    It's really weird how nowadays a 6 meter croc would be a super heavyweight. Back then he'd just be a middleweight.

    They are called dyrosaurs, not dryosaurs :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Dyslexia strikes again...


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭Kess73


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Always hated that dryosaurids have nothing to do with this guy:
    Dryosaurus_WWD.jpg&sa=X&ei=hD93TqWbB8Ou8gOWmKTwDQ&ved=0CAYQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNEVd03Mno5nj8N6Dfiz9feobi14sA


    It's really weird how nowadays a 6 meter croc would be a super heavyweight. Back then he'd just be a middleweight.


    Nah in the pro ranks he would just be a heavyweight.:p:pac:


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/TITANOBOA-MONSTER-SNAKE-Premieres-41-on-the-Smithsonian-Channel-20120305

    It was about time! :D

    Plus, here u have a Titanoboa drawn in the act of strangling a crocodile- by non other than Dinotopia creator James Gurney

    Gurney_Titanoboa-large.jpg


  • Administrators, Computer Games Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 32,074 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Mickeroo


    I wasn't even aware of this guy before! Will keep an eye out for the docu. A giant snake,whats not to love?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Mickeroo wrote: »
    I wasn't even aware of this guy before! Will keep an eye out for the docu. A giant snake,whats not to love?

    You didn´t know about Titanoboa?? :O


  • Administrators, Computer Games Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 32,074 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Mickeroo


    Adam Khor wrote: »
    You didn´t know about Titanoboa?? :O

    Pretty shocking, right? :(


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Mickeroo wrote: »
    Pretty shocking, right? :(

    Considering how it was (perhaps unfairly) declared the undisputed largest snake of all times and was on the news for ages, even stealing the thunder of the creatures found in the same formation (whenever one was announced, it was as "food for Titanoboa")... yes, somewhat. :confused:


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  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    What I want to know is when did the Smithsonian get their own TV channel and what will be the alternative if/when it is released over here?


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