WEBVTT - What Was the Biggest Snake on Earth? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.200 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:11.360 Lauren bulk Bomb. Here the dinosaurs were not the only 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:13.920 creatures that kicked the buckets sixty five and a half 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.000 million years ago. It was one of the greatest mass 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:20.720 extinction events of all time when the last t rex died. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.840 Other reptilian lineages, from the winged pterosaurs to huge aquatic 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:29.240 relatives of today's monitor lizards, also fell, marking the dawn 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:33.120 of our current geologic era, the Cenozoic, or the Age 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.480 of Mammals. But don't let this nickname fool you. Although 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.360 mammals diversified like wild in the Cenozoic, Earth wasn't done 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:45.600 with giant reptiles. Yet. Scientists break the Cnozoic down into 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.800 subdivisions called epox and the first of these, the Paleocene 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:54.200 saw the rise of Titana boa Sara genensis, a colossal 0:00:54.280 --> 0:01:00.200 snake that makes modern pythons and anaconda's look like spaghetti noodles. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.760 Species name comes from Sarah Hone, a vast coal mine 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.080 in northern Colombia that produces tens of millions of tons 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:11.280 of coal every year. Yet coal isn't the only precious 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:16.440 commodity available there. Working alongside the miners, paleontologists have an 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.840 earth thousands of Cenozoic fossils and Sarah hone, approximately fifty 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.600 eight million years old. These fossils date back to the 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.759 early Paleocene and represent plants similar to bananas and coconuts, 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.920 plus river fish, crocodile like predators, and turtles with shells 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:35.039 nearly six ft or two meters long, just to name 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.080 a few. These fossils tell us the area was tropical 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.039 and swampy, much like the Amazon River Delta today. Why 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.520 leaved jungle trees would have flanked ancient rivers choked with 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.280 water plants and out in the steaming wilderness. Titanoboa lurked. 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.440 Fossils from twenty eight of these giant snakes have been 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.280 recovered at sarah Holme. Unfortunately, they've yet to locate a 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.920 complete scala ten. Instead, the scientific community has had to 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.880 make do with an assortment of ribs, vertebra, and some 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:11.120 skull material. Yet even these fines speak volumes. By comparing 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.560 the fossils to the bones of living snakes, we can 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.040 get a pretty good idea of what Titana Boa looked like. 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.560 For example, subtle clues in the vertebra indicate that the 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:24.000 animal was what's called a bood. It makes sense geographically. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.639 Boads are a family of snakes usually found in the America's. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.760 Being non venomous, they tend to kill by constriction. Of 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.440 all the boats alive today. Titana BoA's closest relative might 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.400 be the red tailed boa, a denizen of Central and 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.000 South America that can grow up to thirteen feet or 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.120 four meters long. If you happen to be familiar with 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.440 the film A Clockwork Orange, it's the snake that Alex keeps. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.080 Titana Boa also invites comparisons to a much larger boad, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.040 the green anaconda, Weighing up to four hundred and forty 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.840 pounds that's two hundred kilos. This South American serpent is 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:04.240 the heaviest modern snake. The biggest reliably measured specimen was 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.280 over twenty seven ft or eight meters in length over 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:12.120 in Asia. The unrelated reticulated python can exceed this figure, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:14.480 stretching up to twenty eight feet or eight and a 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.280 half meters long in some cases, but the reddick has 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.320 a sleeker frame. Experts don't think it can rival the 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:26.480 anaconda's maximum waite. Regardless, neither serpent could have held a 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.480 candle to Titanaboa. Scientists estimate that the Paleocene predator could 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.359 have been forty two to forty seven ft in total 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:39.240 length about thirteen to fourteen meters, and theoretically it might 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.280 have tipped the scales at one and a quarter tons 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:47.520 longer than the Tyrannosaurus rex. Titanoboa Sara genensis is the 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:52.840 biggest snake known to science, living or extinct. So here's 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:57.960 a question, what would a snake so massive eat? Green 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:02.440 anaconda's famously eat. Cappabert is the adorable pig sized rodents 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.360 with semi aquatic habits. Smaller cousins of the American alligator 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.280 are also on their menu. When the Smithsonian created a 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.680 life sized Titanaboa sculpture for display as part of its 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:18.520 Titanaboa Monster Snake Exhibit, in it showed the mighty snake 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.080 wolfing down a crocodilian. Google a picture of this. It 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.280 is the fastest that I've said nope about anything. All 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:30.640 weak and we live in nope filled times. The following year, 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:35.040 researchers published a description of Titanaboa as head structure. Anatomically, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.359 the reptile's teeth and jaws resemble those of modern snakes 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.919 that specialize in eating fish. If Titanaboa followed suit, that 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:44.880 would make it the only boat on record with a 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:49.920 fish centric diet. Like the green anaconda, Titanaboa probably spent 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.039 a great deal of time in bodies of water. There, 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.880 it could have more easily lugged its massive body weight 0:04:55.920 --> 0:05:00.200 around and beat the jungles sweltering heat. Researchers have side 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.960 of this animal as evidence of the Paleocen's hot climate. 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.599 Climate scientists think the world was far warmer in the 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.400 early Paleocene than it is today, reptiles may have reaped 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.880 the benefits. For the most part, snakes, lizards, turtles, and 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.240 crocodiles can't generate body heat the way that mammals like 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.599 us do. Instead, they maintain their vital functions by absorbing 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:26.279 warmth from their environments. So by taking into account titani 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.640 BoA's size, scientists can make an educated guess about the 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.479 environment that it lived in. By some calculations, the very 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.440 existence of such a huge, cold blooded reptile indicates that 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.880 Columbia must have had a mean annual temperature of eighty 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.760 six to ninety three degrees fahrenheit. That's thirty to thirty 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.679 four degrees celsius, and the snake reigned fifty eight million 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:52.120 years ago. But perhaps dead boards aren't the most reliable gauges. 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:56.440 We spoke via email with Kale Snyderman, an earth scientist 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.680 at the University of Melbourne in Australia who studies prestoric 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:04.000 climb and ecosystems. He notes that the Pleistocene, an epoch 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.840 that ended about ten thousand years ago and included Earth's 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.520 most recent ice age, also had its share of big reptiles. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.800 He said many now extinct reptile species existed in the 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.800 Palistocene that were larger than their living relatives. Those extinct 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.080 species lived at a time when climates pretty much everywhere 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.760 were at least one to three degrees celsius, about two 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:30.560 to five degrees fahrenheit cooler than today. Consider Varanus priscus, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.839 a komodo dragon relative the patrolled Australia during the last 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.560 ice Age. At roughly fifteen feet or five and a 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:39.360 half meters long, it was far bigger than the lizards 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.400 we have today. And speaking of saurians, the biggest getto 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.080 of all time died out in its native New Zealand 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:50.520 just a few hundred years ago. Snyderman said, neither occurred 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.719 in warm climates by global standards. It could be that 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.280 giant reptiles don't need an oppressively hot planet to survive 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.479 and thrive. After all, petition for mammals might be a 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:06.000 bigger check on their success. In any case, Titana boa 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.680 is long gone, so is the ice age Komodo dragon 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.600 and the Great New Zealand gecko. Yet their cousins remain 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:18.720 enriching our world with flashy scales, forked tongues, and adhesive topads. 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.640 This may be an age of mammals, but there are 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:30.200 still some wonderful reptiles among us. Today's episode was written 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.040 by Mark Vancini and produced by Tyler Clang. For more 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.280 on this lots of other weighty topics, visit how stuff 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.640 works dot com. Brain Stuff. It's a production of I 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.320 Heart Radio. For more podcasts in My heart Radio, visit 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.080 the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:44.120 to your favorite shows.