A giant prehistoric snake, longer than a Tyrannosaurus rex, has been discovered in an Indian mine.
The fossil vertebrae were proven to be the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated up to 15 meters (49 feet) in length that prowled the swamps of what is now the India about 47 million years ago.
Scientists said Thursday they had recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, some of which were still in the same position they would have been when the reptile was alive.
They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus after the snake king associated with the Hindu deity Shiva, would have resembled a large modern-day python and would not have been venomous.
The mine is located in the Panandhro region of Kutch district in the state of Gujarat in western India.
“Given its large size, Vasuki was a slow-moving ambush predator that subdued prey through constriction like anacondas and pythons,” said Debajit Datta, lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“This snake lived in a swamp near the coast at a time when global temperatures were higher than today.”
Due to the incomplete nature of Vasuki’s remains, researchers have given an estimated length of 11 to 15 meters and a rough estimate of a weight of one metric ton.
Vasuki rivals in size another enormous prehistoric snake called Titanoboa, whose fossils were discovered in a coal mine in northern Colombia, South America, as reported in 20
metric tons, lived 58 to 60 million years ago. The reticulated python is the longest snake in existence, sometimes measuring 6 to 9 meters (20 to 30 feet).
“Vasuki’s estimated body length is comparable to Titanoboa, although Titanoboa’s vertebrae are slightly larger than Vasuki’s. However, at this stage we cannot say whether Vasuki was more massive or thinner than Titanoboa,” said paleontologist and study co-author Sunil Bajpai, professor at IITR.
These enormous snakes lived during the Cenozoic era, which began after the end of the age of dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.
Perhaps the largest known Tyrannosaurus rex is a specimen named Sue at the Field Museum in Chicago, measuring 40 feet long, although a T-Rex would have been more massive than these snakes.
The largest Vasuki vertebra was approximately 4.5 inches (11.1 cm) wide. Vasuki appears to have had a broad, cylindrical body, perhaps measuring around 44 cm across. The skull has not been found.
“Vasuki was a majestic animal,” Datta said. “It may have been a gentle giant, resting its head on a high porch formed by coiling its massive body for most of the day or moving slowly through the swamp like an endless train. In some ways it reminds me of the (fictional giant snake) Kaa from The Jungle Book.
Researchers aren’t sure what prey Vasuki was eating, but given its size, it could have been crocodilians. Other fossils from the area included crocodilians and turtles, as well as fish and two primitive whales, Kutchicetus and Andrewsiphius.
Vasuki was a member of the snake family Madtsoiidae, which appeared about 90 million years ago but became extinct about 12,000 years ago. These snakes spread from India to southern Eurasia and North Africa after the Indian subcontinent collided with Eurasia about 50 million years ago, Bajpai said.
It was a dominant family of snakes during the later stages of the dinosaur era and into the early Cenozoic before its diversity declined, Bajpai added.
“Snakes are amazing creatures that often leave us stunned because of their size, agility and deadly nature,” Datta said.
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