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Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by Cro on February 4, 2009
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The largest snake the world has ever known -- as long as a school bus and as heavy as a small car -- ruled tropical ecosystems only 6 million years after the demise of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, according to a new discovery published in the journal Nature.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090204112217.htm
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by puffadder7 on February 4, 2009
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i just saw this i was about to paste and post, dang you beat me to it, it says the snake weighed about 2,500 lbs! thats a big snake, arin
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by 23bms on February 4, 2009
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1. "The snake that tried to eat Jennifer Lopez in the movie 'Anaconda' is not as big as the one we found."
A pity the snake that tried to eat Jennifer Lopez in 'Anaconda' didn't succeed.
2. "Size does matter because the snake's gigantic dimensions are a sign that temperatures along the equator were once much hotter."
Does this mean that, in the extraordinarily unlikely event that the global warming idiots are actually right, we should be finding 50 foot anacondas and reticulate pythons in the not too distant future?
Actually the article was very interesting, and if there are any follow-ups (is that a valid construction?) I hope you post them. I just couldn't resist the humor.
jrb
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by 23bms on February 4, 2009
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I looked up 'large school bus dimensions' and they seem to run around forty feet. I seem to recall that something called 'Gigantophis' was previously considered the largest ever and was estimated to be over thirty-three feet. This certainly blows that out.
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by 23bms on February 4, 2009
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An addendum.
I dredged out my copy of 'Reptiles, Life History, Evolution, and Structure' by Angus d'A. Bellairs, a book, recommended to me many decades ago by one then very knowledgeable, that has probably been superceded in almost every respect, and found the following:
"Boid snakes occur in the Eocene. Some of them were very large; Gigantophis, from Egypt, may have been 60 feet in length."
I don't know what modern science has to say on this subject. Any input would be welcome.
jrb
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by Cro on February 4, 2009
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I also have a copy of 'Reptiles, Life History, Evolution, and Structure' by Angus d'A. Bellairs.
It is a book that I have read many times, and it had some great information, but as you have stated, it is now out of date.
The maximum sixe of Gigantophis was probably just speculation on Mr. Bellairs part, as the tiny number of vertebra fossils that have been found for Gigantophis only support a animal of 30 something feet in length. Still, 30 feet is a pretty big critter, LOL.
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by 23bms on February 4, 2009
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I suspected as much, but I haven't found anything else definitive on the subject. Probably a function of a narrowly cast net.
The book is still worth reading. Not everything has been cast aside. Same goes for works such as Klauber's 'Rattlesnakes'. I was at a herp talk at the Sonoran Desert Museum a few years back. I asked a question and cited one of Klauber's statistics. The response was, "Well, Klauber is a bit dated." I responded with, "What supercedes his research on the topic?" The lecturer stared for a second and then, without a response, turned to a different questioner.
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by FSB on February 5, 2009
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A friend just emailed me that link and I came rushing over here to post it and see that it's already way-old news!
Does anyone recall, in the past year or so, the news about the giant 1,000 lb. rat fossils found, I believe, in Louisiana or Mississippi? Upon hearing that news, I immediately made the prediction to myself that if there were once rats that big, then sooner or later, someone will turn up fossil evidence of a snake big enough to have eaten them.
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by FSB on February 5, 2009
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By the way, I love old reptile and natural history books, and also have a copy of the Bellairs, though it is starting to disintegrate, and copies of everything by Ditmars. They're just really fun to read and to realize how much things have changed. Good writing never goes out of style, though.
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RE: Worlds Largest Snake Found !
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by FSB on February 17, 2009
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Okay. okay, I really hate to admit this, but in honor of the recently-discovered 42-foot snake I broke down and did something I had vowed never to do.... I watched that accursed movie, Anaconda. It was kinda like eating fast food... it made me feel sick and queasy afterwards, and it didn't even taste good.
What a stupid, horrible, stupid, stupid, insipid (did I say stupid?) and absolutely pointless waste of... how many millions of $$$$ did these idiots spend making this thing? There ought to be a law! I'll bet I could build a first-rate serpentarium that would stand for generations with what they paid for Jennifer Lopez's catering and wardrobe alone. Oh, the injustice of it all! I totally agree with jrb... too bad she wasn't eaten, for real.
I for one, was more in line with Jon Voight's character, who I suppose was supposed to be the villain (aside from the snake... he was darn sure the only actor in evidence, but what a shame his career has taken such a dive). If I were cruising up the quiet Amazon on a boat and some idiot starting blaring rap on his ghetto blaster, he be swimming with the pirahnas posthaste!
I've always had some degree of tolerance for B-grade monster movies, and I can usually find at least some enjoyment in them somewhere, if only in the scenery, but this was a completely joyless and miserable experience. Even the scenery was ruined by the presence of these fools.
One good thing... I checked it out from the library, so these Hollywood nitwits made not an extra dime off of me.
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