World's Biggest Snake Lived in 1st "Modern" Rain Forest

nationalgeographic ^ | October 13, 2009 | Ker Than

[JoeProBono]

If it were still alive today, the largest snake ever known to have lived would feel right at home in South America's tropical rain forests.

That's because the modern ecosystem contains many of the same plants that grew in the massive serpent's home turf some 60 million years ago, according to a new study detailing the earliest known "modern" rain forest.

The study is based on more than 2,000 fossil leaves recently discovered in Colombia's Cerrejón coal mine—the same place where scientists had found fossils of Titanoboa cerrejonesis earlier this year.

Many of the newfound plant fossils are of palm, legume, and flowering species that still dominate South America's rain forests, said study team member Scott Wing, a paleontologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

"That was kind of surprising," Wing said. "What we're seeing here is the first modern rain forest that we have any record of."

[JoeProBono]

Biggest Snake Discovered; Was Longer Than a Bus

[DemforBush]

From a related article:

“the [snake] reptile, dubbed Titanoboa cerrejonesis, was at least 42 feet (13 meters) long and weighed 2,500 pounds.”

Yep, gooood old fashioned nightmare fuel right there.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2178275/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2178304/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2362405/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2366555/posts

[SunkenCiv]

the "fossilizedforest" keyword:

• The Pompeii of trees: 300 million-year-old forest preserved by volcanic ash found beneath Chinese...
• 300 million year old fossilized forest discovered under coal mine in China
• Prehistoric titanic-snake jungles laughed at global warming
• Prehistoric titanic-snake jungles laughed at global warming (at 3-5° hotter then )
• The World's Largest Fossil Wilderness (Coal mine)
• Largest prehistoric snake slithers into record books
• Largest snake was 'size of bus'
• Ancient fossil find: This snake could eat a cow!
• Archaeologists discover 8-million-year-old forest in Hungary
• Rare fossilized cypress trees found in Hungary
• Researchers Probe Fossilized Rain Forest
• Ancient Rainforest Revealed in Coal Mine

[goat granny]

yep that snake could take down a human....wonder if Obama has seen it....oops we all dropped it sorry Obama