IN THE lignite-rich depths of a mine in Gujarat, India, paleontologists have unearthed the vertebrae of what could be one of many largest snakes ever to slither on Earth. This big snake, named Vasuki indicus, stretched as much as 49 ft (15 metres) in size and roamed the Indian swamps roughly 47 million years in the past, throughout an period when the planet was a lot hotter.
The discover includes 27 vertebral fossils, a few of which remained aligned as they doubtless have been in life, suggesting the snake’s huge dimension. According to researchers, Vasuki would have resembled at present’s giant pythons and relied on its dimension and power fairly than venom to seize prey.
This important discovery occurred within the Panandhro space of Kutch district, inside the western Indian state of Gujarat, the place lignite, a type of coal, is mined.
“Given its enormous size, Vasuki was likely a slow-moving ambush predator, akin to how modern anacondas and pythons hunt, using constriction to subdue prey,” stated Debajit Datta, the examine’s lead writer and a postdoctoral researcher on the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR). The findings have been revealed within the journal Scientific Reports.
Due to the unfinished nature of the fossils, estimates of Vasuki’s size vary from 36 to 49 ft (11 to fifteen metres), and its weight was roughly a metric ton.
Vasuki shares its namesake with the mythological serpent related to the Hindu deity Shiva and is comparable in dimension to the Titanoboa, a large snake found in Colombia in 2009. The Titanoboa lived round 58-60 million years in the past and reached lengths of about 42 ft (13 metres).
“While the body lengths of Vasuki and Titanoboa are similar, Titanoboa’s vertebrae were slightly larger,” stated Sunil Bajpai, a paleontologist and co-author of the examine from IITR. “It is still uncertain whether Vasuki was more robust or slender compared to Titanoboa.”
These colossal snakes thrived through the Cenozoic period, which adopted the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years in the past. The largest recognized specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex, named Sue and displayed on the Field Museum in Chicago, measures 40-1/2 ft (12.3 metres) lengthy, although it was extra huge than these big snakes.
The largest Vasuki vertebra measured about 4-1/2 inches (11.1 cm) huge, and the snake’s physique was estimated to be round 17 inches (44 cm) in diameter, although its cranium stays undiscovered.
“Vasuki was a majestic animal, likely spending much of its day coiled up or moving slowly through its swampy environment,” Datta stated, evaluating it to Kaa from “The Jungle Book.”
While the precise food plan of Vasuki stays speculative, it doubtless included crocodilians, with different fossils from the realm indicating a various ecosystem that included turtles, fish, and primitive whales like Kutchicetus and Andrewsiphius.
Vasuki belonged to the Madtsoiidae household, a gaggle of snakes that originated about 90 million years in the past and have become extinct round 12,000 years in the past. These snakes unfold throughout Eurasia and North Africa after the Indian subcontinent collided with Eurasia about 50 million years in the past.
(Reuters)
