Titanoboa: The Survivor of the Cenozoic Era By: Bea Cressler
Introduction Super Survivors Imagine discovering the biggest snake in known history. The biggest discovery in the decade. How would you feel? Step in the shoes of scientists from Cerrejon an open coal mine in Colombia, South America as they discover the fossilized remains of the largest snake in the rainforest and explore the lost world that existed 60 million years ago. The scientists will dig out a treasure trove of fossils that reveal the past, will go on an adventure to discover the species of this beast, will compare vertebrae of different breeds of snakes to uncover the size of this creature that inhabited the waters of Cerrejon 60 million years ago, and will discover fossils of 40 ft crocodiles that the colossal snake ate. What they discover will show that even though Titanoboa was an amazing survivor, it wasn t safe from everything.
A Remarkable Discovery Digging Out In the year 2009 a group of scientists was crouching on a slope of a coal mine in the scorching hot desert of Cerrejon. This part of the coal mine, about 8,000 football fields wide, and about 90 degrees fahrenheit, is called the La Puente cut. This barren land may look very dry and lifeless, but if you scrape off the surface, like these scientists did, it is an abundance of fossils. You may be wondering, Why do the scientists bother if the miners are going to mine away all the fossils that are left? It s not quite like that. In fact, through the destruction of the rock, important discoveries will be made. Though fossils will get destroyed when the miners destroy the top layer of rock, it is worth it for the scientists because they find more fossils than are destroyed. Also, when the miners blow out the Cenozoic Era (60 million years ago) old rock, it will reveal even older fossils. So, even though economical demands such as the mining of the coal in the Cerrejon do sometimes prevent important historical/biological discoveries, they can help more discoveries too. For example, while many people think coal mining is bad for the environment, the scientists see the silver lining in this otherwise environmentally damaging process.
From the Cerrejon mine the scientists found many fossils of different shapes and sizes that could lead to one conclusion; there had once been a rainforest here. A rainforest that had been lost to humans, and converted into a huge coal canyon. They found pelvises, shells, vertebrae and more including different species of fish and different kinds of leaves that exist to this day. These large, wide, smooth edged leaves are a clear sign of a lost rainforest that existed 60 million years ago. The scientists found bean, banana, palm, avocado, and chocolate leaves that had fallen all those years ago and were now being dug up by the scientists. This shows that if more people looked closely at things, like the scientists, they would be able to realize and discover things that they never knew. But in this case maybe even the scientists needed to look more carefully. All they had to do is to bring their fossils to the lab for closer analysis. The Moment One night at the lab, a young scientist named Alex Hastings was unwrapping some fossils found in Cerrejon. He had no idea what to expect.
As he was unwrapping one particular vertebrae labeled croc vert, he noticed something strange. The vertebrae looked more like a snake vert than a croc vert. But it was huge. Next morning the word spreads. Interests are perked. Excitement is brewed. Curiosity takes over. The scientists had just found the biggest snake in known history. It s called Titanoboa cerrejonensis. If they hadn t looked literally under the surface of the rocks at the mine, they wouldn t have found the biggest discovery in the decade. Skull Scavenge Though the scientists found the vertebrae, and with it the proof of Titanoboa, they needed the skull to find out what the monster snake ate, how big it was, what kind of snake it was. The only problem with that is that the miners were soon to reveal the next layer of history, and their machines would take away any remains of Titanoboa. The scientists needed to act fast. To do that, they needed to go back to Cerrejon as much as they could, to find more and more evidence of Titanoboa each time. Except they found no skull. The reason for the lack of a skull is probably because snakes skulls are very fragile and thin. When they die, the skull is quick to disintegrate. But the scientists were not giving up. They knew where the skull would be if it was there. They just needed to work quickly, but efficiently. Like most situations, the hard work finally paid off. The scientists dug up 3 good pieces of skull, each section of the jaw about 7 inches long.
I think that this clearly shows that if you work hard for something that you know you can achieve, you usually do achieve it. Now the scientists had plenty of information and proof of Titanoboa so they could do their research to discover how the snake behaved. If a fossilized Titanoboa skull could survive 60 million years under many layers of rock and dust, the great animal itself was surely fit to survive the wilderness of the Cenozoic rainforest.
A Revealing Adventure The Search Since the scientists retrieved as much information as they could get out of the fossils, they now needed to find out what kind of snake Titanoboa was. To do that, they needed to see some real life, living snakes. So, they went to the Everglades National Park in Florida, which is 2,300 sq. meters of land and water. It is a home to many anacondas, which can be up to 25 feet and 500 lbs, and to Burmese pythons, which aren t native to the area. Studying these snakes might help the scientists see a connection between modern day snakes and the ancient Titanoboa.
B B B Boa? What the scientists found at the Everglades National Park helped with their other studies extraordinarily. What they found was that Titanoboa was part anaconda and part boa meaning it is a boid snake, or boidae which is the scientific name for a group of snakes that is non venomous. In this case Titanoboa was also water dwelling. One reason Titanoboa was special, other than its humongous size, is that its teeth are closely packed together. This is abnormal among boa constrictors though the Titanoboa had normally curved teeth, so it could sink its teeth into its prey and lock on. As I considered the Titanoboa s strangely packed teeth, it made me think that different types of snakes are like humans in the sense of races or varieties of species in snake terms. Snakes are more like us than we think. By now you may be thinking Snakes freak me out! or Snakes are sooo cool! but either way, I think they are very interesting, misunderstood, and underestimated creatures. Although snakes have always been symbols of threat and danger, the actions we see as threatening just prove the fact that snakes are great survivors. Snake Characteristics
It s quite interesting that most venomous snakes defend themselves in ways of sniping or latching out quickly. Snakes also constrict. For example, boidae snakes have a wall of muscle strong enough to crush a rhino, But all snakes still need one thing a hiding spot. Maybe they re not as scary as we think. They need their own camouflage and hiding spots like us though they do it naturally. Like its modern relatives, Titanoboa also used these survival techniques.
How Big Exactly? Comparing Vertebrae After the scientists found the skull pieces and several Titanoboa vertebrae along with other animal verts, shells and skulls, they had enough information so they could find out how big Titanoboa was. The scientists needed to find where the vertebrae were located in Titanoboa s body first. Unfortunately, for that they needed hands on material real snakes. Dead snakes this time though, so they could do an autopsy on their bodies. I think it s horrible that they had to chop up some snake s body to find how big an extinct snake was, but this technique proved to be helpful with the scientists research. What s lucky is that the other two ways of comparing vertebrae are harmless, but complicated. The second way requires a professional eye. Some experienced scientists took the huge Titanoboa vert and a 17 ft anaconda vert and compared them. The anaconda s vertebra is 50x smaller than Titanoboa s. While some scientists were busy with comparing, another group of scientists used technology to find exactly where the vertebrae were. According to the Smithsonian video Titanoboa: Monster Snake, it took one year to find where the vertebrae were in Titanoboa s massive body. The scientists said that they found the vert to be halfway between Titanoboa s 2 ft long head and its tail.
Other Cenozoic Discoveries The scientists were able to go back to the Cerrejon mine and find more fossils of animals that lived 60 million years ago in the Cenozoic Era. These animals included many types of crocs, huge turtles with colossal shells, and humongous lungfish. At first the colossal size of all of these big animals was a mystery to the scientists. After some studying, however, they found that since mammals get their energy from the food they eat and reptiles get their energy from the climate, all of the animals were massive because it was a lot hotter back then in rainforests than it is now. Though the scientists originally had thought Titanoboa was big because it ate huge food, now that they knew it was the climate, they can use the knowledge for other discoveries too. The discovery of the sizes of the 15 ft long crocodiles, 5 ½ ft long turtles, and 10 ft long lungfish, was found out while the other scientists compared verts, so it helped greatly for approximating the size of Titanoboa. It had to be bigger than the previously known biggest snake Gigantophis, which was 38 ft long, because Titanoboa s vert was bigger. But how much bigger exactly? Having a lot of information to work with, the scientists finally put together the pieces of the puzzle and found out just how big this Titanoboa was: 48 ft long, and 60 cm wide! 6x wider than a large anaconda. A monstrous size. Though this is a huge size for a snake, the scientists also found out that
Titanoboa can vary from 42 ft to 49 ft long. They can vary just the way humans can. This clearly shows that animals are more like us than we thought. Some Prey, Any Predators? What s For Breakfast? Imagine the huge, 48 ft long Titanoboa lurking in the murky waters of a Colombian river. It sees a large form floating on the surface of the water and strikes! Does that make your arms go up in goosebumps? Kind of perk your interests? Now that the scientists have enough information from all of their studies, they can find out what the Titanoboa eats. It definitely ate the dyrosaur, or huge crocodile, but it also may have eaten the 10ft long lungfish, and other huge fish too. The only animal safe from Titanoboa s deadly jaws and curved teeth was the giant turtle, as it had a shell too large and hard even for Titanoboa to swallow and digest. But one thing suggests there was a predator equally as fearsome as the Titanoboa in the ancient world of Cerrejon large croc bite marks were found on the giant turtle s shell. So, even if the giant turtle was safe from the deadly Titanoboa, that doesn t mean it was safe from all predators.
WAR Along with the huge teeth marks on the turtle, the scientists also found HUGE croc verts in Cerrejon. Studies show that this super croc was the enemy of Titanoboa, striking when the giant snake was most vulnerable as it digested its prey. To get out of the super croc s strong grip, the Titanoboa used techniques such as regurgitating its meal to release extra weight, wrapping its coils around the croc s body, ready to constrict, and finally squeezing the life out of its competitor using the power of 400 lbs per square in. The Titanoboa lets the croc sink to the river bottom, however, because the super crocodile is just too big for Titanoboa to handle in its stomach. Titanoboa swims away without injuries, but the one thing that is lost is its half digested meal. If you had thought because of Titanoboa s size it would ve had to eat more, you d be wrong, because it only had to eat about once a year. As I had said in How Big Exactly? reptiles get their energy from the climate, not the food they eat, so Titanoboa didn t have to eat much to have energy. Clearly Titanoboa was a true survivor.
Conclusion Never Truly Extinct Though the cause of Titanoboa s extinction isn t confirmed, it was possibly caused by climate change, it is never truly extinct The reason I say that is because, along with other Cenozoic animals, we will keep finding out more about Titanoboa all of the time. We didn t cause the extinction of this colossal snake, but we are causing global warming, and that will create bigger reptiles. Possibly the rebirth of a giant snake called Titanoboa. Though we are good survivors, we also cause things that could be hazardous for ourselves.
Sources Cited I. Webpath.follettsoftware.com II. Head, J.J. Biased reptilian paleothermometer? Ontario, Canada. Macmillian Publishers, 2009. III. Head, Jason J, Bloch, Jonathan I, Hastings, Alexander K, Bourque, Jason R, Candena, Edwin A, Herrera, Fabiany A, Polly, David P, Jaramillo, Carlos A. Giant boid snake from the Paleocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures. Ontario, Canada. Macmillian Publishers, 2009. IV. Gugliotta, G. Monster Discovery. EBSCO Publishing V. tunemovie.com/titanoboa