WORLD
Giant snake that stalked Earth
Baku, April 5 (AZERTAC). A recently discovered prehistoric monster snake provides answers about the past - and raises questions for the future.
Around 58 million years ago, a monstrous snake slithered out of the swampy jungles of South America and began a reign of terror.
Weighing more than a tonne and measuring 14m (approximately 50ft) the giant reptile could swallow a whole crocodile without showing a bulge. But a few years ago, scientists never even knew it existed.
"Never in your wildest dreams do you expect to find a 14m boa constrictor. The biggest snake today is half that size," says Dr Carlos Jaramillo, a scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and part of the team that made the discovery.
Thought to be a distant relative of the anaconda and boa constrictor, the snake - namedTitanoboa- was not venomous. Instead, it crushed its prey with the constricting force of 400lbs per sq inch - the equivalent of lying under the weight of one and a half times the Brooklyn Bridge.
The fossils were exposed by excavation at the massive Cerrejon open-face coal mine in northern Colombia. In 2002, scientists had discovered at that site the remains of a tropical rainforest from the Palaeocene Epoch - perhaps the planet`s first.