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Fossils of the world’s largest snake provide clues to tropical climate between 58 million and 60 million years ago, researchers contend. The snake — a 13-meter-long, heftier-than-a-ton cousin of the modern boa constrictor — lived in what is now northern Colombia (SN: 11/8/08, p. 15) and was unveiled at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in October.— Sid Perkins

Described in detail in the Feb. 5 Nature, the species now bears the name Titanoboa cerrejonensis, which translates as the titanic boa from Cerrejón, the name of the region where the fossils were unearthed. Analyses of the rocks surrounding the Titanoboa fossils suggest that the behemoth lived on coastal plains in a wet tropical rainforest, the same type of environment frequented today by anacondas, paleontologist Jason Head of the University of Toronto in Mississauga, Ontario, and his colleagues report.

However, the researchers speculate, the climate in which Titanoboa lived was much hotter than today’s. The maximum body size that a snake species can reach is related to the average annual temperature of the environment in which it lives. So, average annual temperature in Titanoboa’s rainforest probably measured between 32° and 33° Celsius, about 6 degrees C higher than the average temperature in the region today, the team reports.

Researchers knew the temperature was higher 60 million years ago than it is today, but the new finding could help scientists better calibrate models of ancient climate.

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