Last month, an international group of scientists revealed in the journal Nature that Jaramillo’s team had made a startling discovery — a species of snake larger than a school bus that ruled northern South America 60 million years ago. Evolving after the extinction of the dinosaurs, Titanoboa cerrejonensis — or titanic boa from Cerrejon — might have been the largest vertebrate living on land at that time, the Paleocene era.

Indeed, it had an average length of 43 feet — far longer than any of today’s pythons or anacondas — and it weighed 2,500 pounds, more than a small car. Its diet included giant turtles and crocodiles — Jaramillo’s team also discovered the fossilized remains of those creatures under layers and layers of dirt and shale.

A titanic boa that ruled South America? SOOOOO good.

via Flush Life