What Rebecca's Reading
- 'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite A “serpent-handling” West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.
- A Dispute Over Who Owns a Twitter Account Goes to Court How much is a tweet worth? And how much does a Twitter follower cost?
- A dollar badly spent: New facts on processed food in school lunches In a collaboration between The New York Times and the Investigative Fund, reporter Lucy Komisar delved into the billion-dollar business of the national school lunch program and found some unsettling news.
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February 5, 2009
Massive Prehistoric Snake Ate Crocodiles; Today’s Snakes Eat Alligators Then Explode
In a fairly hilarious slip, yesterday a USA Today said researchers had found a 2500 foot snake fossil in Colombia. Uh, make that a 2500 pound snake (it was about 40 feet long). But still: BIG SNAKE!! And it was 65 million years old (OLD SNAKE!!). The Independent’s headline called it, “The Snake That Was So Big it Ate Crocodiles.” But that’s actually not news: Plenty of snakes eat things like crocodiles. And that sometimes gets very ugly …
Apparently, clashes between pythons and alligators are becoming increasingly common in the Everglades, where people have developed the annoying habit of dumping their pet pythons when they get too big to keep around the house (say, six feet long, or more). This has the makings of a tremendous problem: They’re encroaching on an $8 billion dollar Everglades restoration project by eating the native otters, the endangered birds … and now the alligators? Encounters like this simply aren’t natural — these snakes are a native species of Asia. They’re not supposed to be fighting Florida alligators. But this is the fourth battle of its kind.
Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, is quoted by VZW News (which isn’t online or I’d link to it) saying that in this case, the alligator and python “were probably evenly matched in size … if the python got a good grip on the alligator before the alligator got a good grip on him, he could win.” But, he says, after being swallowed whole, the alligator apparently clawed at the pythons stomach from the inside, causing the snake to explode. The remains found by the rangers were a mess: The alligator’s hind end protruding from the snake’s midsection; the snake’s stomach still wrapped around the alligator’s head, shoulders and front legs.
10 Responses to “Massive Prehistoric Snake Ate Crocodiles; Today’s Snakes Eat Alligators Then Explode”
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MattK says:
No one is concerned about whether the burms explode or get eaten by gators. The issue is that there are no native big constrictors in the everglades and there is concern over how the burms will affect an already severely compromised ecosystem. Whether or not there are asian crocodilians living in the native habitat of burms has no bearing on the effects that these snakes will have in the everglades.
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Lab Rat says:
I don’t think there are many crocs and alligators in burma (where i am assuming this snake origonally came from) and if so the local snakes have probably learnt to keep away.
Or maybe they don’t, and there are many exploding snakes in SE asia that just never get reported.
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eddie says:
Your previous post may show the solution to this crisis.
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Tenebras says:
“Stupid question: What is a sake?”
Rice wine, although how it would eat a crocodile, I’m not entirely sure. That must be some potent sake.
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gillt says:
But wait, aren’t there any gators or crocs a python might have to contend with in SE Asia? Conversely, weren’t there once large constrictors in the Everglades?
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Rob Jase says:
2500 feet long!
Imagine the trousers it would have lived in.
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Danimal says:
“Plenty of sakes eat things like crocodiles.” Stupid question: What is a sake?
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Coturnix says:
But could it a Gigantic Prehistoric Cow?
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Skloot says:
Totally, EdY. My thoughts exactly.
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Ed Yong says:
I have enjoyed the fact that many papers seem to have ascribed abilities that normal snakes can do to Titanoboa in an awestruck way.
OMG! This snake was so large it could eat a COW!!!! So… in what way is that different to a living python??