Vasuki fossil: scientists finally found the fossil of the world’s largest snake “vasuki”. Know the details below;
A really big snake fossil was found in a mine in Gujarat, India. It’s one of the biggest snakes ever found! They named it Vasuki indicus. It was about 15 meters long, even longer than a T-Rex.
Surprising facts about Vasuki
Scientists found 27 bones from its spine, some were still in the right place.
They think Vasuki looked like a big python. It didn’t have venom. The fossil was found in a mine in Panandhro, Gujarat. A scientist named Debajit Datta from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee led the study. He said that because Vasuki was so big, it was a slow predator. It would squeeze its prey like anacondas and pythons do. This snake lived in a swampy area near the coast when the world was hotter than it is now. The snake could have weighed up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms), according to the researchers. They wrote about it in a journal called Scientific Reports. They named the snake Vasuki. Vasuki is the name of the snake king in Hindu mythology. In the stories, Vasuki is coiled around the neck of the god Shiva. They found the snake’s backbone in 2005 near Kutch, Gujarat. They compared more than 20 bones to living snakes to figure out how big it was. Official statement of scientists Sunil Bajpai said, “Vasuki is about the same size as Titanoboa. The Titanoboa has slightly bigger bones. We don’t know if Vasuki was bigger or thinner than Titanoboa.” Titanoboa lived a long time ago. It was between 58 million and 60 million years ago. It was really big. It measures 13 meters long and weighs more than 1 tonne. Debajit Datta is a paleontologist. He described Vasuki as a majestic giant. He thinks Vasuki might have spent most of its time resting its head on a high porch made by its own big body, or maybe it moved slowly through the swamp. We still don’t know what Vasuki ate. Because of its size, it could have eaten crocodiles. It’s interesting that they found crocodile and turtle fossils near Vasuki’s remains, as well as fish and even two primitive whales called Kutchicetus and Andrewsiphius. Datta said, “Snakes are amazing creatures that surprise us with their size, agility, and how dangerous they can be.”
