Discovery of Giant Ancient Snake

Recently fossils discovered show that one ancient type of constrictor was roughly as long as a bus - 43ft long and weighing 2500lbs estimate and lived in South America.

MSNBC - Ancient Snake

A colossal snake about the length of a school bus slithered about South America's rainforests some 60 million years ago, according to an analysis of the skeletal remains of what is now considered the largest snake ever identified
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From the fossilized vertebrae, the researchers conservatively estimate the snake weighed about 2,500 pounds and measured nearly 43 feet nose to tail tip.

In the article it states they estimate the snake needed a temp. of around 86 to 93f to live.

Granted, the fossils are very, very old. However, giant snake stories have been coming out of South America for ages now. Such as the account below from the explorer Percy Fawectt.

South American Explorer - Giant Snakes

“I sprang for my rifle as the creature began to make its way up the bank and smashed a .44 bullet into its spine…We stepped ashore and approached the creature with caution. As far as it was as possible to measure, a length of 45ft lay out of the water and 17ft lay in the water, making a total of 62 ft…”
- From the personal diary of Colonel Percy Fawcett, 1907

It makes me wonder if they all really went extinct or if a few survived and are the cause of the occasional reports of giant snakes in South America.

Reminds me of the giant snake that was sighted in Japan on Shikoku. They said it was about 33 feet long and thick as a telephone pole. There's also a museum there with a giant skull, but some people think it's of a shark. Looks like a snake to me though.

And also a picture I saw from Vietnam taken by soldiers from a helicopter. Supposedly had an enormous snake coming out of the trees lunging at the helicopter but the photo was kind of grainy.

Originally posted by Ridhya
And also a picture I saw from Vietnam taken by soldiers from a helicopter. Supposedly had an enormous snake coming out of the trees lunging at the helicopter but the photo was kind of grainy.

Yes...

The story got a little jumbled over the years, as some versions stated the snake rose 60 feet in the air - which would have menat the snake was over 100 feet long...

Maybe back in the day - like Dino days...


I believe the 'true' story stated that the snake was about 60 feet long...and I think it was in a tree when the helicopter and its crew encountered it...(just noticed that you brought the tree part up already)


Either way - I'm sure there are quite a few undiscovered things roaming out there...another reason to camp in a RV.




content edit!

[edit on 2/5/2009 by chapter29]

reply to post by chapter29

I was just fixing to say that in the jungles of Viet Nam, there are some really, really strange and absolutely huge snakes.

I was on point, cutting across elephant grass and kept seeing a flicker of movement out of my right side. I'd stop, look in the grass, and see nothing.

In fact, the only thing in the entire open area was a tree stub a little taller than me, and as thick as twice as thick as a beer can.

I'd start again, go a ways, and see another flicker. It finally hit me that the tree "stub" was a snake! Not just a snake but as we were pretty close now, the neck flared, and it was a cobra. When his neck flared out, it was as wide as my waist!

I never heard of a cobra that was seven or eight feet high! When it went down in the grass, I had no trouble at all convincing everyone that we needed to haul ass, and give that area a wide berth.

For this thing to have seven feet or more above ground level, wouldn't that be only been a third or so of his entire length?

The only other cobras I'd ever seen were seven or eight feet long.

There are big things in those jungles. Really big things!




[edit on 5-2-2009 by dooper]

[edit on 5-2-2009 by dooper]

reply to post by dooper



I just searched for the info, but couldn't find it and I'm off to bed...

But yes, the general rule is that the snake can raise 1/3 of it's body off the ground...


So, if I understood your post, you did a tour(s) in Vietnam..? If so, appreciate your time in service...


I don't know what I fear more - the big a$$ snake or the small spider that drops you in two steps..?

I remember seeing a video of a huge giant snake! I think an anaconda?

Some guys went to this cave where they heard of sightings of huge snake. They didn't find anything, until the started leaving, the snake blocked their way! So they somehow measured it. but I forgot how long it was....

If anyone seen this please refresh my memory!

[edit on 5-2-2009 by _Phoenix_]

reply to post by chapter29


Volunteered for combat three times, extended my tours twice. And thanks. Just one of many.

I saw critters that I know for a fact, no scientist has ever seen, and to tell you the truth, between the spiders, snakes, scorpions, big hairy, butt-ugly worm-types, and some bad-ass bugs, I never realized how much is alive in a jungle.

Small snakes, big snakes. Anyone tells you a Python doesn't bite, you send him to me. I have a nice, large grouping of scar tissue to prove them wrong.

And no, the snake didn't survive, but I almost didn't either!

A forty foot snake in a jungle where there is plenty of food, and few predators would not surprise me one little bit.

After all, they have a year-long growing season.

The Monsterquest episode about giant snakes was kind of on the money then.

They had eyewitness reports of snakes up to 10 metres long slithering through the jungles, who had been known to eat humans.

Typical of MQ though, they found and proved nothing, but it is interesting watching regardless.

Just let me know where these new snakes are meant to live, and I'll happily move to the opposite corner of the globe.

i just saw the report of his on a news website then as i was browsing ats i saw this thread here

this topic has always intrigued me

ever since the anaconda movie lol

i mean snakes can be so sneaky and stealthy

and there is so much unexplored land, and just large wilderness areas that a being could easily evade humans

it would be truly interesting to find or here of some proof of such a large snake existing today

if not still any alive today i am curious as to when and why they began to disappear

i really look forward to more developing on this creature and find

NEW YORK — Never mind the 40-foot snake that menaced Jennifer Lopez in the 1997 movie "Anaconda." Not even Hollywood could match a new discovery from the ancient world. 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.

"This thing weighs more than a bison and is longer than a city bus," enthused snake expert Jack Conrad of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was familiar with the find.

That is one BIG # snake!!!

was gunna make a thread but you got to it first

S+F

Any pictures of a fossil yet? Cant wait to see how this thing sizes up!

Haha no one says pythons don't bite! Its just rare, I remember one guy agitating the hell out of one in preschool (they were so docile they could be around kids) and it did bite him in the wrist, but he deserved it a long time before he got what was coming to him!

The movie Anaconda is so stupid, they even shoot it in the head and it doesnt die. Unless it was a ghost snake. Maybe in the new sequels at least...

And for the picture from Vietnam, well I cant imagine a snake of any size attacking a helicopter... thats just bad for business. Found a photo from the Japan one I talked about though ^_^

hey

www.huffingtonpost.com...

thats the only pic of the fossil i seen looks kinda BIG

edited "full artical" with picture

[edit on 6-2-2009 by theresult]

Here is the giant snake photo from Vietnam.


theshadowlands.net...
www.meta-religion.com...

reply to post by Nventual


Those are all photos from a pilot flying over the Congo, not Vietnam.

www.extremescience.com...

Anacondas are the largest snakes. There are reports of them at some huge lengths.

There are some historical reports of early European explorers of the South American jungles seeing giant anacondas up to 100 feet long and some of the native peoples of the South American jungle have reported seeing anacondas up to 50 feet long.

If you think that an anaconda big enough to swallow a capybara or tapir whole is big, you should see the size of the giant snake scientists discovered in a coal mine in Columbia, South America in 2008. Fossils of an enormous snake were discovered in an open coal mine in the Amazon rainforest. Paleontologists estimated the length of the snake to be 43 feet long and estimated to weigh 2,500 pounds! Based on their findings, the scientists who identified this new species of snake said it was large enough to prey on crocodiles. Since snakes are cold-blooded, the average temperature of the Amazon had to have been 6 to 8 degrees warmer to support a snake that enormous.

Loren Coleman states in his book "Cryptozoology A-Z" that there are only first hand reports supporting the idea of giant anacondas in South America. However, he suggests that it may be possible, especially lengths of 30-40 feet.

www.trueauthority.com...

From the early 1900s, and also included in the OP, it's the most famous account.

"We stepped ashore and approached the creature with caution. As far as it was possible to measure, a length of 45 feet lay out of the water and 17 feet lay in the water, making it a total length of 62 feet. Its body was not thick, not more than 12 inches in diameter, but it had probably been long without food."

More sources are available at that last link, including the following by cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, more recently than the past quote.

"We saw the snake asleep in a large patch of grass. We immediately opened fire upon it. It tried to make off all in convulsions but we caught up with it and finished it off. Only then did we realize how enormous it was. When we walked around the whole length of its body it seemed like it would never end. What struck me was its enormous head, a triangle about 24 inches by 20. We had no instruments to measure the beast, but we took an arms length of string and measured it about one meter by placing it on a man's shoulder and extending it to his fingertips. We measured the snake several times and each time we got a length of 25 strings. The creature was well over 23 meters (75 feet) long.

[edit on 2/6/2009 by ravenshadow13]

I THOUGHT THAT YOU ALL SAW THE PICTURE TAKEN BACK IN THE 30'S BY A GUY OF A HUGE SNAKE THAT SNAPPED AT HIS AIRCRAFT WHEN HE BUZZED IT. SO YEAH ITS REAL,AFTER ALL ITS THE amazon WHERE STUFF GROWS huge BY NATURE.

Originally posted by Zachman225
reply to post by Nventual

 

Those are all photos from a pilot flying over the Congo, not Vietnam.

Sorry I presumed because previous posters said it was Vietnam that it was Vietnam.

And also a picture I saw from Vietnam taken by soldiers from a helicopter. Supposedly had an enormous snake coming out of the trees lunging at the helicopter but the photo was kind of grainy.

Wow that is huge! Imagine the feeding bill that would have caused...Makes you wonder how many other enormous animals use to roam the earth that now roam in a smaller stature.

I have been an avid snake lover since I was really little. I love the big ones but this would have been huge! Snakes can actually be good pets if you know what you are doing and do your school work on owning them FIRST! I have been looking into two types of snakes for years and soon I will decide which one to get.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


I think you're onto the answer right there. Back when mega-fauna roamed the Earth, it seems reasonable that the predators would be mega, too.

As these died off, the predators had to adapt to the change, part of the adaptation seems to have been smaller is better...though apparently not all the predators got the memo...

Dooper. That would be one scary snake. It wouldn't need to bite me to kill me, I'd have died on the spot from terror...and I like snakes... Twenty foot plus cobra...damn.