According to recent studies, snakes are the third most feared creature on the planet. People, big and little, despise these slithering animals.
So you can image how relieved the majority of the world must feel to realize that the titanoboa no longer exists…
This thing, known as the “Titanoboa” slithered its way around La Guajira in northeastern Colombia between 58 and 60,000,000 years ago. It was, as far as we know, the largest snake to have ever roamed the earth. Could you imagine what OTHER monsterous creatures were around at this time?!
Titanoboa grew to be up to 13 meters (42.7 feet) long and weighed upwards of 1,135 kg (1.25 tonnes ). The most complete fossils of Titanoboa were found in a coal mine in Colombia.
Although it wouldn’t eat all that often, when it did, it FEASTED. The diet of Titanoboa consisted of the crocodiles of the Ancient Cerrejon Formation of Columbia in South America. To confirm, this GIANT SNAKE would eat CROCODILES like candy.
This is the skeleton of an Anaconda. The Titanoboa was twice as long and 3 times as heavy as a fully grown “Giant Anaconda”.
Although they would have looked very much like modern-day anacondas, they most likely didn’t hunt like them. Rather than constricting and strangling their prey, they likely killed them by striking quick and fiercely at the neck. They did, however, still have the ability to crush the life out of anything they wanted.
This snake was able to grow so large because of the ideal conditions that their habitat presented them with. They were carnivores that ate only a few times a year. If they weren’t feeling like eating crocs, they likely also feasted on other snakes like cobras, pythons, and other constrictors.
They were incredibly skilled hunters and it is estimated that they were capable of crushing their prey with the force of 400 lbs per square inch.
Like anacondas, these beasts likely spent a lot of their time in the water. This only makes it even scarier. Imagine going back in time and finding yourself in the jungles of Colombia knowing that these things were slithering around both in the bush and beneath the murky depths of the swamps?!
Leave a Comment