"Primitive crocodiles," Head says, adding the serpents would have swallowed their toothy victims whole. "This would have been an aquatic snake that specialized in eating large aquatic vertebrates," says Head.Īnd which aquatic vertebrates in particular? With an estimated body length of 13 to 15 metres and a weight of 1.25 tonnes, the non-venomous, water-based reptile coiled around its prey and squeezed the life out of it, like modern-day boa constrictors. The study, which says the aptly named Titanoboa cerrejonensis likely existed some 60 million years ago, will be published tomorrow in the journal Nature. "It certainly shows that we have no idea what the body-size limits on being a snake are," Head said of the ophiophobiac's nightmare. "It is the world's largest snake," said lead study author Jason Head, a U of T paleontologist. The "dinosaur-sized" constrictor dwarfed any serpent ever known to slither across the face of the Earth, nearly twice as long as today's anacondas and pythons. But as of now, there are no verified reports of any anaconda ingesting people.An ancient snake as long as a bus and weighing about the same as a car probably ate crocodiles for lunch, a University of Toronto researcher says. They do consume white-tailed deer-which can weigh over 120 pounds, about the mass of a slender adult person-in the wild. There’s no doubt that a green anaconda could kill and eat a human. No wonder the stealthy, semi-aquatic predators are occasionally called “water boas.” 10. In addition to their breath-holding ability, anacondas, like crocodiles, have eyes and nostrils on the tops of their heads so that they poke above a river’s surface while the rest of the snake is still underwater. Anacondas can remain submerged for up to 10 minutes at a time. A healthy female anaconda mom can bear more than 30 babies per litter. Essentially, their offspring emerge from eggs inside their mothers’ bodies, then are born live. Several types of snakes, including anacondas and garter snakes, are ovoviviparous. Green anacondas demonstrate the biggest size gap among terrestrial vertebrates: While males can reach an average length of about 10 feet, females can grow to be more than 17 feet and perhaps up to 25 feet long. The difference in appearance between males and females of the same species is called sexual dimorphism. Male and female anacondas show the biggest size difference on Earth. The lower jaw adds another two rows for extra grip. Like most snakes, anacondas have four rows of teeth on their upper jaws.įour parallel lines of backwards-pointing teeth help serpents grasp their prey and swallow it whole. Despite their enormous size and strength, anacondas often sustain significant injuries while hunting caimans. The numerous species of caiman range in length from about 5 feet to 13 feet, making them formidable prey for anacondas. Green anacondas won’t say no to snacking on other big reptiles.Ĭaimans are alligator-like aquatic reptiles native to South American rivers. Capybaras frequently weigh up to 140 pounds and constitute one of the snakes’ chief meals. They’ll even consume animals as large as peccaries (a type of wild pig), tapirs, deer, and sheep. Green anacondas will eat almost anything, including birds and their eggs, other reptiles and amphibians, fish, and mammals. Then, they lunge, catch the prey in their jaws, and wind their incredibly muscular bodies around the animal until it suffocates or dies from being crushed. Instead, the lie in wait for an unsuspecting mammal, fish, or amphibian to wander within reach. Like other boas, anacondas lack venom with which to neutralize their prey. Large anacondas often weigh more than 200 pounds, but the longest snake on Earth is the reticulated python ( Python reticulatus). The green anaconda is the world’s heaviest snake, but not the longest. Green anacondas may be on there way to becoming established as an invasive species in parts of southern Florida like its boa cousin, the Burmese python. The biggest and best known are the green anacondas, which live live in wetlands and river basins through tropical South America, including parts of Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. beniensis), and the dark-spotted anaconda ( E. There are four species of anaconda today: Green anacondas ( Eunectes murinus), yellow anacondas ( E.
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Anacondas are members of the boa family.Īnacondas belong to Boinae, the family of large, non-venomous snakes collectively called boas.
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Read on for more gripping facts about these massive snakes. But you may not know that they give birth to live young and can stay underwater for up to 10 minutes on a single breath. Most people know that green anacondas are huge.