Posted on 02/07/2010 7:29:08 AM PST by JoeProBono
Found in a Colombian coal mine, a vertebra from a 45-foot (14-meter) Titanoboa cerrejones dwarfs a similar bone from a 17-foot (5.2-meter) anaconda--currently the world's biggest, if not longest, snake species. (View anaconda pictures and facts.)
The ancient snake's giant size suggests that mean year-round temperatures in the tropics were several degrees warmer than they are today, according to a study that analyzed the relationships among a snake's body size, its metabolism, and the outside temperature.
"We were able to use the snake, if you will, as a giant fossil thermometer," said biologist Jason Head, lead author of the new study, to be published February 5, 2009, in the journal Nature.
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