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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / February 2004What is the largest historical snake?
With these reports last month of a 49 foot reticulated python being found in Indonesia, I became curious about the fossil records for snakes. Are the biggest snakes of all time alive now? Or is there some monster from the past? I know that pythons and their relatives are pretty modern snakes, so it would not surprise me to learn that there have never been bigger snakes than today. On a related note...FORTY NINE FEET??!!...I dont believe it for a minute. I need to find out if that has been confirmed. > With these reports last month of a 49 foot reticulated python being found in > Indonesia, I became curious about the fossil records for snakes. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > On a related note...FORTY NINE FEET??!!...I dont believe it for a minute. I > need to find out if that has been confirmed. Turned out to be around 9m in the end. There were much larger snakes in Australia before the last Ice Age, I recall. There were some nice fossils found around two years ago, reported in Nature.  SignatureJohn Wilkins "And this is a damnable doctrine" - Charles Darwin, Autobiography >> With these reports last month of a 49 foot reticulated python being found in >> Indonesia, I became curious about the fossil records for snakes. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >> On a related note...FORTY NINE FEET??!!...I dont believe it for a minute. I >> need to find out if that has been confirmed. >Turned out to be around 9m in the end. Not even that. According to the accounts I found on the web the length was around 6.5 meters (or 21 feet). " 'I have no idea why the snake has shrunk,' said one keeper when asked about the discrepancy, as the snake lounged on a tree branch inside its cage". :-) :-) :-) >There were much larger snakes in Australia before the last Ice Age, I >recall. There were some nice fossils found around two years ago, >reported in Nature. So how big were they? SignatureJohn Brock jbrock@panix.com > >> With these reports last month of a 49 foot reticulated python being found in > >> Indonesia, I became curious about the fossil records for snakes. [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > the snake has shrunk,' said one keeper when asked about the > discrepancy, as the snake lounged on a tree branch inside its cage". You still aren't getting me in the same cage with it if I can help it. That is big enough to kill you with no problems and these things never get tame. > :-) :-) :-) > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > So how big were they? > With these reports last month of a 49 foot reticulated python being found in > Indonesia, I became curious about the fossil records for snakes. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > On a related note...FORTY NINE FEET??!!...I dont believe it for a minute. I > need to find out if that has been confirmed. It really depends on what the actual relationship between mosasaurs actually is. The last I read the mosasaurs were moved into a single clade with the snakes, Pythonomorpha I think. There were some really big mosasaurs, some species of tylosaurus were in excess of 10 meters long. Ken >Subject: Re: What is the largest historical snake? >Path: >From: Ken Shaw none.of@your.biz >There were some really big >mosasaurs, some species of tylosaurus were in excess of 10 meters long. Now that I think about it, my question is e tougher to answer than I thought. The closness of Lizards and Snakes is going to make it tough to point to an actual snake that was the biggest. What interests me is the size of true lizards in the past, such as Megalania prisca, compared to modern monitors such as the Komodo Dragon. More than twice as big for the Megalania. If something like that occured for snakes, then you would be looking at pythons from the past approaching 60 feet and half a ton. I guess I am wondering if anything over 30 feet has ever been found for a true snake. Not a Mosasaur or Kronosaur. But a land dwelling, python type monster. > >Subject: Re: What is the largest historical snake? > >Path: [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > I guess I am wondering if anything over 30 feet has ever been found for a true > snake. Not a Mosasaur or Kronosaur. But a land dwelling, python type monster. I think the answer is yes though for some reason 50 seems to stick in my mind. > > >Subject: Re: What is the largest historical snake? > > >Path: [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > > > What interests me is the size of true lizards in the past, such as Megalania > > prisca, compared to modern monitors such as the Komodo Dragon. More than > > twice as big for the Megalania. If something like that occured for snakes, then > > you would be looking at pythons from the past approaching 60 feet and half a > > ton. > > > > I guess I am wondering if anything over 30 feet has ever been found for a > > true snake. Not a Mosasaur or Kronosaur. But a land dwelling, python type > > monster. > > > I think the answer is yes though for some reason 50 seems to stick in my > > mind. http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2421/evolve.htm "The most complete skeleton of a fossil snake was found in Upper Cretaceous rocks in Argentina. Most of the skull was preserved as well as a large number of vertebrae and ribs. The six foot skeleton was named Dinilysia patagonica, and it shares many anatomical characteristics with the modern boas and pythons, which are usually considered to be the most primitive of the living snakes. Another fossil snake, Gigantophis, that was found in Egypt, had an estimated length of over fifty feet, and is the largest of all the known snakes. It was also related to the modern boids." Afraid that the longest Australian fossil snake I could find reference to was an 8 meter python (Liasis sp.) ran around with that danged big goanna of theirs, probably picking off the young ones of each other from time to time as well as some of those big marsupials. Regards bk Is that the recent fossil find named Monty pythonoides? See http://tinyurl.com/3e34x > With these reports last month of a 49 foot reticulated python being found in > Indonesia, I became curious about the fossil records for snakes. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > On a related note...FORTY NINE FEET??!!...I dont believe it for a minute. I > need to find out if that has been confirmed. [SNIP] > On a related note...FORTY NINE FEET??!!...I dont believe it for a minute. I > need to find out if that has been confirmed. Surprise, it turned out to be a lot shorter when remeasured by someone from the Uk's Guardian newspaper - turned out be be between 6.7 and 7 m. Doug |
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