ĭue to the warm and humid greenhouse climate of the Paleocene, the region of what is now Cerrejón was covered by wet tropical rainforests that covered coastal plains that housed large river systems, which were inhabited by various freshwater animals, especially reptiles. This would place Titanoboa at the stem of Boinae, a result later corroborated by a study in 2015. Specifically, the 2013 abstract recovered the giant snake being closely connected to taxa from the Pacific Islands and Madagascar, linking Old World and New World boids and suggesting that the two lineages must have diverged by the Paleocene at the latest. The skull material confirmed Titanoboas initial placement within the subfamily, now also supported by the reduced palatine choanal. Vertebrae morphology places the snake in the subfamily Boinae alongside other large constrictors of the Americas such as anacondas and typical boas. In 2016, Feldman and his colleagues estimated that a 13 m (43 ft) long individual would have weighed 730 kg (1,610 lb) at maximum based on their equation to estimate the body size of boids. The existence of eight additional specimens of similar size to the one used in these calculations implies that Titanoboa reached such massive proportions regularly. These estimates far exceeds the largest modern snakes, the green anaconda and the reticulated python and the previous record holder, the madtsoid Gigantophis. Weight was determined by comparing Titanoboa to the extant green anaconda and the southern rock python, resulting in a weight between 652 kg (1,437 lb) and 1,819 kg (4,010 lb) (mean estimate 1,135 kg (2,502 lb)). Applying anaconda proportions to the 40 cm (16 in) skull of Titanoboa results in a total body length of around 14.3 m (47 ft) (± 1.28 m (4 ft 2 in)). The later discovery of skull material allowed for size estimates based on skull to body length proportions. Using this method, initial size estimates proposed a total body length of approximately 12.82 m (42.1 ft) (± 2.18 m (7 ft 2 in)). Based on comparison between the undistorted Titanoboa vertebrae and the skeleton of modern boas, Head and colleagues found that the analysed specimens fit a position towards the later half of the precloacal vertebral column, approximately 60 to 65% back from the first two neck vertebrae. In modern constrictors like boids and pythonids, increased body size is achieved through larger vertebrae rather than an increase in the number of bones making up the skeleton, allowing for length estimates based on individual bones. īased on the size of the vertebrae, Titanoboa is the largest snake in the paleontological record. The teeth themselves are weakly ankylosed, meaning they are not strongly connected to the jawbone. According to it, Titanoboa is unique in the high amount of palatal and marginal tooth positions compared to others boids, the quadrate bone is oriented at a low angle and the articulation of both the palatine to pterygoid and pterygoid to quadrate are heavily reduced. The skull is only briefly described in a 2013 abstract. They are robust with a uniquely T-shaped neural spine. Most material of Titanoboa consists of vertebrae that in life would be located before the cloaca. The relative size of Titanoboa to the modern human, Gigantophis, reticulated python, and green anaconda. The species name on the other hand is a reference to the Cerrejón region. The scientific name combines the Greek word "Titan" with Boa, the type genus of the family Boidae. Field work continued following these initial discoveries, recovering multiple additional specimens including three skulls with associated postcranial bones. 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. Before this discovery, few fossils of Paleocene-epoch vertebrates had been found in ancient tropical environments of South America. These specimens consist of the holotype, a large precloacal vertebra, the paratype, also a vertebra, and 184 additional fossils identified as vertebrae and ribs (some found in articulation), amounting to a total of 28 specimens in addition to the holotype and paratype. cerrejonensis were found in the Cerrejón Formation of the coal mines of Cerrejón in La Guajira, Colombia. In 2009, the fossils of 30 individuals of T. Main articles: Cerrejón Formation and Cerrejón
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