Titanoboa Temporal range: Mid-Late Paleocene (Peligran-Itaboraian) ~60–58 Ma | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Suborder: | Serpentes |
Family: | Boidae |
Genus: | †Titanoboa Head et al. 2009 |
Species: | †T. cerrejonensis |
Binomial name | |
†Titanoboa cerrejonensis |
Titanoboa (/tiˌtɑːnoʊˈboʊə/) is an extinctgenus of very large snakes that lived in what is now La Guajira in northeastern Colombia. They could grow up to 12.8 m (42 ft) long and reach a weight of 1,135 kg (2,500 lb).[1]
Fossils of Titanoboa have been found in the Cerrejón Formation,[2] and date to around 58 to 60 million years ago. The giant snake lived during the Middle to Late Paleoceneepoch,[3] a 10-million-year period immediately following the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.[4]
The only known species is Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest snake ever discovered,[3] which supplanted the previous record holder, Gigantophis.
The name Titanoboa means 'titanicboa'.[1] The species epithetcerrejonensis refers to the Cerrejón coal mine and the Cerrejón Formation, in which the fossils have been found.
By comparing the sizes and shapes of its fossilizedvertebrae to those of extant snakes, researchers estimated that the largest individuals of T. cerrejonensis found had a total length around 12.8 m (42 ft) and weighed about 1,135 kg (2,500 lb; 1.12 long tons; 1.25 short tons).[1]
In 2009, the fossils of 28 individuals of T. cerrejonensis were found in the Cerrejón Formation of the coal mines of Cerrejón in La Guajira, Colombia.[1][3] Before this discovery, few fossils of Paleocene-epoch vertebrates had been found in ancient tropical environments of South America.[5] The snake was discovered on an expedition by a team of international scientists led by Jonathan Bloch, a University of Florida vertebrate paleontologist, and Carlos Jaramillo, a paleobotanist from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.[4]The name Titanoboa means 'titanicboa'.[1] The species epithetcerrejonensis refers to the Cerrejón coal mine and the Cerrejón Formation, in which the fossils have been found.
Titanoboa inhabited the first recorded Neotropical forest in the world. It shared its ecosystem with large Crocodylomorpha and large turtles. The paleogeography of the Late Paleocene was a sheltered paralic (coastal) swamp area, sheltered by the emerging later Guajira hills in the west and the slowly rising present-day Serranía del Perijá in the east, with an open connection to the proto-Caribbean in the north.[6] In this environment the tropical aquatic ferns of the genus Salvinia flourished, as evidenced by fossils found in Cerrejón, the Bogotá Formation and the Palermo Formation.[7]
While initially thought to have been an apex predator of the Paleocene ecosystem in which it lived, analysis of the cranial elements of Titanoboa possess unique features relative to other boids. These features include high palatal and marginal tooth position counts, low-angled quadrate orientation, and reduced palatine-pterygoid and ptery. This has pointed to the genus being dominantly piscivorous; a trait unique to Titanoboa among all boids.[8]
The size of T. cerrejonensis has also provided clues as to the earth's climate during its existence; because snakes are ectothermic, the discovery implies that the tropics, the creature's habitat, must have been warmer than previously thought, averaging about 32 °C (90 °F).[1][3][9][10]
The warmer climate of the Earth during the time of T. cerrejonensis allowed cold-blooded snakes to attain much larger sizes than modern snakes.[11] Today, larger ectothermic animals are found in the tropics, where it is hottest, and smaller ones are found farther from the equator.[4]
However, other researchers disagree with the above climate estimate. For example, a 2009 study in the journal Nature applying the mathematical model used in the above study to an ancient lizard fossil from temperate Australia predicts that lizards currently living in tropical areas should be capable of reaching 10 to 14 m (33 to 46 ft), which is not the case.[12]
In another critique published in the same journal, Mark Denny, a specialist in biomechanics, noted that the snake was so large and was producing so much metabolic heat that the ambient temperature must have been four to six degrees cooler than the current estimate, or the snake would have overheated.[13]
On 22 March 2012, a full-scale-model replica of a 14.6 m (48 ft), 1,135 kg (2,500 lb) Titanoboa was displayed in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It was a promotion for a TV show on the Smithsonian Channel called Titanoboa: Monster Snake which aired on 1 April 2012.[14][15]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Titanoboa. |
We may not be so impressive as other species with our physical abilities: powerful muscles or weaponry like fangs, claws, horns and so on. But we have evolved to excel in one issue: sex. Not regarding sexual activity - as it has been shown that the bonobo (which is also wrongly named 'dwarf chimpanzee') has more sex and much varied than the human being - but penis size.
Man is the ape, the monkey and the primate with the biggest penis! Gorilla males, which dwarf humans in body size, have minute penises compared to ours, no thicker and longer than a pencil. Other apes do not reach even this size. In some African countries, 'hanging like a gorilla' is considered an insult.
So, in the end, who is the owner of the largest penis in the world? A 2006 UK Channel 4 documentary called 'The World's Biggest Penis' solved the mystery: it appears to be the New Yorker Jonah Cardeli Falcon (born July 29, 1970). His willy is 9.5 in (24.13 cm) flaccid, 13.5 in (34.29 cm) erect! The average human penis is 6 in (15 cm) long..
Jonah is not a nameless person: he is an American actor and talk-show host, which appeared in some sitcoms, British television shows and Hollywood movies. He was born in Brooklyn and identifies himself as bisexual.
But the huge penis is not a blessing. It rather condemns him to loneliness: there's no match babe. He lives with his mom and his whale penis, without a girlfriend for 12 years.
'When I meet people they find it hard to look me in the eye, they just see what's in my trousers. It's become a real problem. When I was younger I went out in tight pants and would sleep with a different person every night, but I became burned out and disillusioned. My last relationship ended in 1996. Now I just want to find a steady girlfriend who doesn't think I'm a freak show', Jonah told 'The Sun' two years ago.
Alligators can often reach at least 14 or 15 feet in length, which is even larger than some crocodile species, but not all of them, especially not the Saltwater Crocodile (I am talking about the American alligator – A. mississippiensis here, the Chinese alligator – A. sinensis is much smaller). But what is the largest alligator ever measured?
Thea render for sketchup. Related: 20 amazing facts about alligators
There are two candidates:
Five members of the Stokes family captured and killed a giant alligator at the Alabama R
According to wikipedia, and the open source encyclopedia cites alligatorfur.com, the largest alligator ever was taken on Marsh Island, Louisiana and was 19 feet 2 inches (5.84 meters). Unfortunately, there’s no photo of the beast. So I have doubts if it’s true.
In Florida, hunters shot a 15-feet (4.57 meters) and 800 pound (362.8 kg) alligator. The gator was reportedly terrorizing and eating cattle on a Florida farm. Definitely not the largest ever, but it’s worth to mention it here.
An alligator is also a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. So the two creatures share many similarities. But what are the real differences between them? This is probably the most frequently asked question when it comes to crocodilians.
The shape of the head (jaw): this is the most obvious difference between a crocodile and an alligator. Crocodiles have a longer, more V-shaped head then alligators. Look at their noses: alligators (and caimans) have a wide “U”-shaped, rounded snout (like a shovel), whereas crocodiles tend to have longer and more pointed “V”-shaped noses.
The broad snout of alligators is designed for strength, capable of withstanding the stress caused to
Despite alligator jaws seem more strong, the crocodile jaws are stronger. They beat all creatures whose bites have been evaluated, in fact. Paleobiologist Gregory M. Erickson and colleagues put all 23 living crocodilian species through an unprecedented bite test. The “winners”—saltwater crocodiles—slammed their jaws shut with 3,700 pounds per square inch (psi), or 16,460 newtons, of bite force (this is far more powerful than even the strongest bite force of the carnivore land mammals). And while a 2008 computer model estimated that a 21-foot (6.5-meter) great white shark would produce nearly 4,000 psi (17,790 newtons) of bite force, that figure hasn’t been directly measured. Read the full story on nationalgeographic.com.
Placement of teeth: in alligators, the upper jaw is wider than the lower jaw and completely overlaps it. Therefore, the teeth in the lower jaw are almost completely hidden when the mouth closes, fitting neatly into small depressions or sockets in the upper jaw. This is particularly apparent with the large fourth tooth in the lower jaw. In crocodiles, the upper jaw and lower jaw are approximately the same
Alligators strongly favor freshwater while some species of crocodile live in seawater. Both Alligators and Crocodiles have glands on their tongues that help cope with high salt content in water, only the Crocodiles gland appears to function, or function effectively. This fact means Crocodiles are far more likely to be found in saltwater, than Alligators. Alligator species, of which there are two, are restricted geographically to the southeast of the United States of America, the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and the Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis) in the Yangtzee River in China. Caiman species are found in Central and South America, while the Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is native to India.
Crocodile species have a far wider range, living throughout the tropical waters of Africa, Asia the Americas and Australia. Most people regard crocodiles as more aggressive than alligators, and this is true of some species. For example, alligators are relatively docile next to saltwater crocodiles, but there are many species with many different kinds of behaviors and temperaments. A general rule that crocodiles are more aggressive than alligators just isn’t possible to make.