A prehistoric monster snake the length of a school bus, which probably fed on supersized turtles and crocodiles, has made its way to the Smithsonian Institution for an exhibit opening Friday.
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A boy stands next to a life-size replica of Titanoboa at Smithsonian museum. (Bloomberg) |
The National Museum of Natural History is featuring a life-size replica of Titanoboa along with a cast of its large vertebra through January 2013. When it was alive, the snake averaged 16 meters long.
Fossils from the world’s largest snake were first discovered in 2004 in a coal mine in Colombia that once was a rainforest. Eventually bones were uncovered from at least 60 of the monster snakes.
At first scientists labeled the fossils as being vertebra from a crocodile, but a graduate student noticed there was a difference. A student interning with the Smithsonian eventually discovered the snake’s skull. The specimen broke the previous record for snake length by almost 4 meters.
“It tells you how magical nature is,” said Carlos Jaramillo, a staff scientist at the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute, who helped make the discovery. “Here we have it, so nature can do many things.”
Scientists figure the snake weighed about more than 1,000 kilograms. It was found near fossilized plants, giant turtles the size of a kitchen table and other creatures dating to more than 60 million years ago in the Paleocene era after the dinosaurs.
Titanoboa was related to modern boa constrictors and anacondas. Scientists say it was the world’s largest predator and large enough to eat a cow or a human easily. It likely fed on large turtles or crocodiles while spending most of its time in water.
One meal could last it an entire year because of its long digestive process.
After the fossils were uncovered, it took a year to determine the snake’s full length. Jason Head, a professor from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, developed a mathematical model to calculate the massive size.
Until the discovery in the coal mine, there were few opportunities to find signs of the prehistoric life of tropical rainforests because thick vegetation blocked any archaeological expedition, said Jonathan Bloch, a paleontologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville where scientists continue to study the full set of fossils.
“The tropics have been this closed window for so long,” he said. “We had really essentially no idea what the animals look like in what should be an incredibly diverse region.”
Scientists also developed a method to estimate the temperature of the climate that produced such a beast. They estimate the rainforest at that time was several degrees warmer than it is now, helping to grow much larger creatures. Their findings were first reported in 2009 in the journal Nature.
On Sunday, the Smithsonian Channel will debut a new documentary about the discovery, “Titanoboa: Monster Snake.”
After the Smithsonian display, the exhibit will move to the Florida Museum of Natural History, the University of Nebraska and the BioMuseuo in Panama. (AP)
<관련 한글 기사>
‘악어를 통째로 삼키는’ 16미터 거대 뱀!
거의 버스만큼 긴 몸통을 자랑했던 6천만년전 괴수가 미국 박물관에서 실제 크기의 모형으로 복원되었다고 AP통신이 30일(현지시간) 보도했다.
스미소니언 자연사 박물관은 티타노보아라고 알려진 이 선사시대의 뱀 모형을 2013년 1월까지 전시할 예정이라고 한다.
길이가 16미터 정도로 추정되는 이 거대한 뱀의 화석은 2004년에 콜롬비어에서 처음 발견되었다.
과학자들은 처음에 이 화석들이 악어의 척추에서 나온 것이라 추정했지만 한 대학원생이 차이점을 발견하고, 곧 스미소니언에서 인턴을 하고 있던 한 학생이 뱀의 두개골을 발견하면서 거대한 뱀의 실체가 밝혀졌다.
티타노보아는 그전까지 가장 큰 뱀이라고 알려진 종(種)보다 거의 4미터 가까이 긴 것으로 알려졌다.
과학자들은 티토나보아의 무게가 1천 킬로그램이 넘으며 소나 인간을 손쉽게 삼킬 수 있었을 것이라고 밝혔다.
이 뱀은 공룡시대 이후 신생대 제 3기에 번성했던 거대한 악어와 거북이 종을 섭취했을 것으로 추정된다. 뱀의 화석에서 주변에서 발견된 거북 중 일부는 부엌 테이블만큼 큰 것도 있었다. 이 뱀이 한번 식사를 하면 1년에 달하는 긴 소화과정을 겪어야 했을 것이다.
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