Long-dead snake still scares even the hardiest of scientists(49172)-大学英语阅读(792)-21英语网

Long-dead snake still scares even the hardiest of scientists

本文作者： 21ST

MEET the mother of all snakes, the Titanoboa. First the bad news: it's as long as a bus and nearly a meter thick, according to a recent issue of Nature magazine. But don't jump, there's good news: I's not in your neighborhood, and it's been dead for about 60 million years. The only thing left is a fossil of its 15cm thick spinal cord, which paleontologist Jason Head of the University of Toronto discovered in a coal mine in Colombia, South America. "I just about jumped out of my chair," Head told the US-based National Public Radio. "It was so ridiculously big. I said I know this is the world's largest snake." Head estimates the snake would have been more than twice the size of the biggest South American boa constrictor (pictured) or anaconda ever recorded. Titanoboas are now a thing of the past because, in order to survive, they would have had to live in a climate that was several degrees higher than the current average temperatures of tropical rainforests today.