Titanoboa

At 48 feet, it's longer than a school bus. At 2,500 pounds it's heavier than 10 professional wrestlers. Living 60 million years ago, it was able to crush and devour giant crocodiles and turtles the size of pool tables. It's the monster snake Titanaboa and it's the newest exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

The replica of the giant serpent was created after scientists discovered an actual vertebrate from the extinct snake in a Columbian coal mine in what was once a South American rain forest. 

Its closest relative living today would be the green anaconda, which can grow to almost 30 feet and weigh up to 550 pounds.

Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the proper scientific name of the snake which is thrilling visitors brave enough to visit the special exhibit, comes from combining the words titanic, boa, and the name of the mine where the fossil was found.

Scientists can't determine from the fossil if the snake now displayed was a male or a female. However, since females in the boa family are larger than males, if the replica does represent a male, it is quite possible that fossils indicating even larger snakes could be uncovered. The scientists are fairly certain they do know how the snakes reproduced. Several males would wrap around a female in a mating ball. Females then would give birth to as many as 100 snakes at a time.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

Of course, we don't have to worry about titanoboas today. Unless ... Scientists say that for such large reptiles to develop the rain forests of the Paleocene epoch would have had to have been warmer than those of today. A 5 degree increase might be enough to create the 84 to 89-degree range scientists believe existed back then. But what could cause such an increase? Hey, global warming, anyone?