Titanoboa
Titanoboa | |
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Titanoboa dorsal vertebra in the José Royo y Gómez National Geological Museum, Bogotá | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Suborder: | Serpentes |
Family: | Boidae |
Genus: | †Titanoboa Head et al., 2009 |
Species: | †T. cerrejonensis
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Binomial name | |
†Titanoboa cerrejonensis Head et al., 2009
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Titanoboa (
Titanoboa could grow up to 12.8 m (42 ft) long, perhaps even up to 14.3 m (47 ft) long, and weigh around 730–1,135 kg (1,610–2,500 lb). The discovery of Titanoboa cerrejonensis supplanted the previous record holder, Gigantophis garstini, which is known from the Eocene of Egypt. Titanoboa evolved following the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs, being one of the largest reptiles to evolve after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Its vertebrae are very robust and wide, with a pentagonal shape in anterior view, as in other members of Boinae. Although originally thought to be an apex predator, the discovery of skull bones revealed that it was more than likely specialized in preying on fish.
History and naming
In 2002, during an expedition to the coal mines of Cerrejón in La Guajira[1] launched by the University of Florida and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,[2] large thoracic vertebrae and ribs were unearthed by the students Jonathon Bloch and Carlos Jaramillo.[3][4] More fossils were unearthed over the course of the expedition, eventually totaling 186 fossils from 30 individuals.[2] The expedition lasted until 2004, during which the fossils of Titanoboa were mistakenly labeled as those of crocodiles.[5] These were found in association with other giant reptile fossils of turtles and crocodilians from the Cerrejón Formation, dating to the mid-late Paleocene epoch (around 60-58 mya), a period just after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.[2] Before this discovery, few fossils of Paleocene-epoch vertebrates had been found in ancient tropical environments of South America.[6] The fossils were then transported to the Florida Museum of Natural History, where they were studied and described by an international team of Canadian, American, and Panamanian scientists in 2009 led by Jason J. Head of the University of Toronto.[2] The snake elements were described as those of a novel, giant boid snake that they named Titanoboa cerrejonensis. The genus name derives from the Greek word "Titan" in addition to Boa, the type genus of the family Boidae. The species name is a reference to the Cerrejón region it is known from.[2]
Another expedition to Cerrejón launched in 2011 found more fossils from Titanoboa.[5] Most notably, the group returned with three disarticulated skulls of Titanoboa, making it one of the few fossil snakes with preserved cranial material. They were associated with postcranial material, cementing their referral to the species.[7] Though the skulls are undescribed, an article by the BBC in 2012[8] and an abstract in the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology have been published.[7] A documentary on the animal titled Titanoboa: Monster Snake aired in 2012 in addition to a touring exhibit of the same name, which lasted from 2013 to 2018.[9]
Description
Size
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Biggest_snakes_comparison_chart.svg/300px-Biggest_snakes_comparison_chart.svg.png)
Based on the size of the vertebrae, Titanoboa is the largest snake in the paleontological record. In modern constrictors like
Anatomy
Many of the fossils of Titanoboa are incomplete or undescribed, consisting primarily of thoracic vertebrae that were located before the cloaca. It possesses the same characteristics as other boids and especially Boa, such as a short, posteriorly-pointing
The skull is only briefly described in a 2013 abstract. According to it, Titanoboa has a high amount of palatal and marginal tooth positions compared to others boids. The quadrate bone is oriented at a low angle and the articulation of both the palatine to pterygoid and pterygoid to quadrate are heavily reduced, a trait absent in its relatives. The teeth themselves are weakly ankylosed, meaning they are not strongly connected to the jawbone.[7]
Classification
Titanoboa is placed in the family Boidae, a family of snakes containing the "constrictors", that evolved during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Americas.[11] They are a widely distributed group, with six subfamilies found on nearly every continent,[12] with Titanoboa being in the subfamily Boinae based on vertebrae morphology. All known boines are from the Americas, reaching as far north as Mexico and the Antilles[13] and south to Argentina.[14] Titanoboa is also the only extinct boine genus known; all other boine genera are still living.[15][2]
The skull material confirmed Titanoboa's initial placement within the subfamily, now also supported by the reduced
The cladogram below follows the 2015
Palaeobiology
Habitat
Due to the warm and humid greenhouse climate of the Paleocene, the region of what is now Cerrejón was a coastal plain covered by wet tropical forests with large river systems, which were inhabited by various freshwater animals. Among the native reptiles are three different genera of
The rainforests of the Cerrejón Formation mirror modern tropical forests in regards to which families make up most of the vegetation. But unlike modern tropical forests, these Paleocene forests had fewer species. Although it is possible that this low diversity was a result of the wetland nature of the depositional environment, samples from other localities in the same time frame suggest that all of the forests that arose shortly following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction were of similar composition. This indicates that the low plant diversity of the time was a direct result of the mass extinction preceding it.[20][21] Plants found in these Paleocene forests include the floating fern Salvinia[22] and various genera of Zingiberales and Araceae.[23]
Diet
Initially, Titanoboa was thought to have acted much like a modern anaconda based on its size and the environment it lived in, with researchers suggesting that it may have fed on the local crocodylomorph fauna. However, in the 2013 abstract, Jason Head and colleagues noted that the skull of this snake displays multiple adaptations to a
Climate implications
In the 2009 type description, Head and colleagues correlate the
However, this conclusion was questioned by several researchers following the publication of the paper. J. M. Kale Sniderman used the same methodology as Head and colleagues on the
These issues, alongside adjustments suggested by Makarieva, were addressed by Head and his team the same year, arguing that Denny and colleagues misunderstand their proposed model. They retort that the method takes into account variation caused by body size and that it's furthermore based on the largest extant snakes, making it an appropriate method. They also add that the results recovered are consistent with large extant snakes, which are also known to perform thermoregulation through behavior. Sniderman's proposal that the correlation between body size and temperature is inconsistent with modern monitor lizards is addressed twofold. For one, Head argues, Komodo dragons are a poor analogy as they are geographically restricted to the islands of Indonesia, limiting the size they could grow to while both green anacondas and Titanoboa are mainland animals. Secondly the response notes that the size estimates utilized for Varanus priscus are overestimates and unreliable, being based on secondary reports that do not match better supported estimates indicating a 2.19–4.7 m (7 ft 2 in – 15 ft 5 in) range for the monitor.[28]
See also
References
- INGEOMINAS, pp. 1–259, retrieved 22 May 2017
- ^ S2CID 4381423.
- .
- Science Daily. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
- ^ a b "How Titanoboa, the 40-Foot-Long Snake, Was Found". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- ^ Maugh II, T.H. (4 February 2009). "Fossil of 43-foot super snake Titanoboa found in Colombia". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Head, Jason; Bloch, Jonathan; Moreno Bernal, Jorge; Rincón Burbano, Aldo Fernando; Bourque, Jason (2013), Cranial osteology, body size, systematics, and ecology of the giant Paleocene snake Titanoboa cerrejonensis, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, pp. 140–141, retrieved 22 May 2017
- ^ O'Brien, Jane (2 April 2012). "The giant snake that stalked the Earth". BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- ^ "Titanoboa: Monster Snake". Smithsonian. 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
- S2CID 25049185.
- ^ ISSN 1094-8074.
- ISBN 1-893777-01-4(volume).
- S2CID 240344156.
- ^ "ITIS - Report: Epicrates cenchria". www.itis.gov. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
- ^ Lotte, Jose; Lotte, Ben (1996). "Taxonomy and Description of Boa Constrictor". Litteratura Serpentium. 16 (3): 78–81.
- ISSN 0891-2963.
- S2CID 84094253.
- , retrieved 22 May 2017
- .
- PMID 21628164.
- PMID 16191647.
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- S2CID 4322274.
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- S2CID 4420868.