Place: South America.
Length: 45 feet (13.7 meters).
Diet: Carnivore.
This is the largest species of snake that ever slithered across the Earth!
Description:
Titanoboa is a boid (constrictor) snake that lived during the Paleocene Epoch of the Paleogene period 66-56 million years ago, during the Paleocene Epoch. It was discovered in the Cerrejon Formation in South America, and it was the largest species of snake that ever lived. It was 45 feet (13.7 meters) long, had had a 40-cm skull. It is described as being "anaconda-like" (Head et al., 2009, "Abstract"), which makes sense because both Titanoboa and the anaconda lived/live in South America. Like other boas, Titanoboa would have killed its prey by constriction.
Prey:
Titanoboa was the largest predator in its environment. It lived around the giant turtle Carbonemys, and the large dyrosaurid Acherontisuchus.
Cerrejon Formation Animals:
Head et al., (2009):
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23980887_Giant_boid_snake_from_the_Palaeocene_neotropics_reveals_hotter_past_equatorial_temperatures
Head et al., (2013):
Boid (Boidae):https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/boid+snake
Carbonemys:
https://phys.org/news/2012-05-reveal-ancient-giant-turtle-fossil.html
Acherontisuchus:
https://www.science20.com/science_20/acherontisuchus_guajiraensis_prehistoric_giant_crocodile_versus_worlds_largest_snake-82630
International Chronostratigraphic Chart (2020):
https://stratigraphy.org/timescale/International Commission of Stratigraphy Website:
https://stratigraphy.org/news/130
