Titanoboa
| Titanoboa | ||||||||||||
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Drawing reconstruction of Titanoboa . |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Paleocene | ||||||||||||
| 60 to 58 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Titanoboa | ||||||||||||
| Head et al. , 2009 | ||||||||||||
Titanoboa is the name of an extinct genus of the Boas (Boidae) from the Paleocene of South America . The only species assigned to the genus is the type T. cerrejonensis . It is the longest known snake in the history of the earth .
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description
Titanoboa was scientifically described in 2009 on the basis of a series of vertebrae from the Cerrejón coal mine (Cerrejón Formation) in the Departamento de La Guajira in northeastern Colombia . The find consisted of an almost complete vertebra and a total of 184 other vertebrae and rib bones from a total of 28 individuals. It is the largest known snake vortex of all known fossil and modern species. On the basis of this find, a total length of about 13 meters and a weight of 1,135 kg were assumed for the species. This makes Titanoboa the largest known species of snake.
In the way of life, Titanoboa probably resembled the anaconda ( Eunectes murinus ) that lives in South America today .
Titanoboa as a climate indicator
In the poikilothermic or cold-blooded animal species , which also include snakes, there is a direct relationship between maximum body size and the temperature of the environment. Large species need particularly high ambient temperatures in order to have a metabolic rate for appropriate growth. Based on the estimated body length of 13 meters, an average annual temperature of 30 to 35 ° C is assumed for the snake's habitat. The snake thus represents an indicator of significantly higher temperatures in the neotropical region than previously assumed.
etymology
The genus name is derived from the titans , giant pre-deities of Greek mythology, and "Boa" as a type of Boinae . The species name is derived from the Cerrejón mine as a place of discovery, so the name means "giant boa from Cerrejón".
literature
- Jason J. Head, Jonathan I. Bloch, Alexander K. Hastings, Jason R. Bourque, Edwin A. Cadena, Fabiany A. Herrera, P. David Polly, Carlos A. Jaramillo: Giant boid snake from the Palaeocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures. Nature 457, 715–717, February 5, 2009. doi : 10.1038 / nature07671 ( abstract )
Web links
- Scientists find world's biggest snake by Roberta Kwok. In: Naturenews, February 4, 2009
- Monster in the greenhouse - the world's largest primeval snake enriches tropical temperature history By Jan Osterkamp, in: Spektrumdirekt , February 4, 2009
- pm-magazin.de - Snake ate crocodiles ( Memento from May 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), May 4, 2009