Titanoboa, meaning "titanic boa," is a genus of snake that lived approximately 60–58 million years ago, during the Paleocene epoch, a 10-million-year period immediately following the dinosaur extinction event. The only known species is Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest, longest, and heaviest snake ever discovered, which supplanted the previous record holder, Gigantophis. Comparison with living snakes
The largest eight of the 28 T. cerrejonensis snakes found were between 12 and 15 m (40 and 50 ft) in length. In comparison, the largest extant snakes are the Python reticulatus, which measures up to 8.7 metres (29 ft) long, and the green or common anaconda, which measures up to 5.21 metres (17 ft) long and is considered the heaviest snake on Earth. At the other end of the scale, the smallest extant snake is Leptotyphlops carlae, with a length of about 10 centimetres (4 in). In 2009, the fossils of 28 individual T. cerrejonensis were found in the Cerrejón Formation of the coal mines of Cerrejón in La Guajira, Colombia.Prior to this discovery, few fossils of Paleocene-epoch vertebrates had been found in ancient tropical environments of South America.The snake was discovered on an expedition by a team of international scientists led by Jonathan Bloch, a University of Florida vertebrate paleontologist, and Carlos Jaramillo, a paleobotanist from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Climate
Because snakes are ectothermic, the discovery implies that the tropics, the creature's habitat must have been warmer than previously thought, averaging approximately 30 °C (90 °F).The warmer climate of the Earth during the time of T. cerrejonensis allowed cold-blooded snakes to attain much larger sizes than modern snakes.Today, larger ectothermic animals are found in the tropics, where it is hottest, and smaller ones are found further from the equator. In popular culture
In 2011, Charlie Brinson and his team created a 35-foot-long electromechanical, robotic reincarnation of the Titanoboa snake, using 20 high-strength aluminum vertebrae and 40 proportional hydraulic cylinders. There are plans to extend it to the full 50-foot length.
On 22 March 2012, a full scale model replica of a 48-foot-long, 2,500-pound Titanoboa was displayed in Grand Central Station in New York City. It was a promotion for a TV show on the Smithsonian Channel called "Titanoboa: Monster Snake" which aired 1 April 2012.