A group of researchers in India recently discovered fossils of giant ancient snakes that could have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton. These ancient snake fossils may belong to the largest snake species to have ever lived on Earth. The oversized snake, named Vasuki Indicus after the king of snakes in Hinduism, could potentially be 15 meters long, making it larger than the current record holder, the Titanoboa python.
The fossilized spines of these giant snakes were found at the Panandhro Lignite mine in Gujarat, dating back to about 47 million years ago during the Pleistocene era. The research team estimated the snake’s total body length using the width of the spine and found that V. indicus could be between 11 and 15 meters long. They used two different methods to derive these estimates, both based on modern snakes in the python family.
Vasuki Indicus belongs to an extinct family of pythons and is believed to be an ambush predator, similar to the modern anaconda. The researchers speculate that this snake likely had a large, wide, cylindrical body and mainly lived on land. It is believed to have lived in a warm climate with an average temperature of about 28 degrees Celsius.
The research team hopes to further analyze carbon and oxygen in the fossils to learn more about the diet of V. indicus pythons. This discovery sheds light on the diversity and size of ancient snake species and offers valuable insights into the prehistoric world.