🦎 Early reptilesPaleogeneWell known
Titanoboa
Titanoboa cerrejonensis
Titanoboa shows how warm Palaeocene ecosystems could support large cold-blooded predators.
Image: Gretarsson · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Sites on today's globe · 1 marker
Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Titanoboa cerrejonensis
- Period
- Palaeocene (Thanetian)
- Lived
- 60–58 Ma (60 million years ago)
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Habitat
- Swamp, Freshwater
- Length (estimate)
- 13 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 1,100 kg
Description
Titanoboa was a gigantic snake with a long body and a way of life probably similar to that of modern boas. Its vertebrae indicate an animal much larger than most living snakes. It lived in a warm, humid ecosystem and probably ate fish, turtles and other vertebrates. Body-size estimates are calculated from fossil vertebrae and remain estimates.
Habitat
Warm, swampy rainforests and river channels in northern South America.
Fossil sites
Cerrejón, La Guajira
Cerrejón Formation
Cultural profile: Colombia →
Sources: Titanoboa