NEW DELHI, Apr 19: Fossils recovered from Kutch in Gujarat could have belonged to the backbone of one of many largest snakes to have ever lived, in keeping with new analysis from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.
From the Panandhro Lignite Mine, researchers found 27 “mostly well-preserved” bones forming the snake’s spinal column, or vertebra, with some connections nonetheless intact. They mentioned the vertebrae gave the impression to be from a fully-grown animal.
The snake is estimated to be between roughly 11 and 15 metres lengthy, comparable in measurement solely to the extinct Titanoboa, identified to be the longest snake to have ever lived, the researchers mentioned. Owing to its measurement, it could have been a “slow-moving ambush predator,” just like an anaconda, they mentioned. The findings are printed within the journal Scientific Reports.
The researchers have named this newly found snake species ‘Vasuki Indicus’ (V. Indicus) after the legendary snake around the neck of the Hindu deity Shiva and in reference to its nation of discovery, India. V. Indicus is a part of the now extinct madtsoiidae household, identified to have lived throughout a broad geography, together with Africa, Europe and India, they added.
The authors mentioned the snake represented a “distinct lineage” originating in India which then unfold through southern Europe to Africa through the Eocene, about 56 to 34 million years in the past. The first ancestors and shut kin of the trendy mammal species are mentioned to have appeared within the Eocene interval. (PTI)
The authors dated the fossils to the Middle Eocene interval, roughly 47 million years in the past.
The vertebrae, measuring between 38 and 62 millimetres in size, and between 62 and 111 millimetres in width, prompt V. Indicus to presumably have had a broad, cylindrical physique, the researchers mentioned.
They extrapolated the measurements of V. Indicus to be between 10.9 and 15.2 metres in size.
Despite uncertainties in estimates, the researchers mentioned the snake was comparable in measurement to Titanoboa, the fossils of which had been first found within the 2000s from current day Colombia. (PTI)
