Emily Chan
In India, researchers have discovered the fossilized bones of a giant extinct snake that measured up to a staggering 50 feet long and may have weighed up to 2,200 pounds.
It is believed to be one of the largest snakes ever recorded. The remains of the snake were dug up from a mine in the Kutch District in Gujarat State, which is located on the western coast of India.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. In the study, the researchers estimated that the prehistoric creature was between 36 and 50 feet long.
They named it Vasuki indicus in honor of a Hindu mythical serpent, Vāsuki. The serpent is usually depicted wrapped around the neck of Shiva, the Hindu deity known as the god of destruction.
At the mine, the team excavated part of a vertebral column. It was made up of 27 vertebrae in total. The bones dated back around 47 million years ago and reached a length of up to 2.4 inches and a width of 4.3 inches.
Initially, the researchers thought the fossils belonged to an extinct crocodile, but after conducting an examination, they realized that the bones were from a now-extinct family of terrestrial snakes called Madtsoiidae.
Madtsoiidae lived for about 100 million years between the Late Cretaceous and the Late Pleistocene periods. They slithered across the regions that are now known as Madagascar, South America, Africa, India, Europe, and Australia today.
Due to its colossal size, it is likely that Vasuki was slow-moving and laid in wait for prey. Once prey was caught, the snake would’ve constricted the prey just as a python or anaconda does.
Its bones indicated that it had a broad, cylindrical body, suggesting that the snake may have inhabited a terrestrial or semi-aquatic region with a warm climate of around 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
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