The largest snake to have ever existed may have prowled India. All about Vasuki indicus

In a tale as intriguing as it is colossal, researchers have unearthed evidence of a gargantuan serpent that once roamed ancient India’s landscapes some 47 million years ago. This prehistoric behemoth, now dubbed Vasuki indicus after the mythical serpent adorning the neck of the Hindu deity Lord Shiva, stands as a testament to the awe-inspiring diversity of the natural world.

A serpent of myth and legend

Measuring longer than a school bus and dwarfing even the largest modern anacondas and pythons, Vasuki indicus is believed to have been one of the largest snakes to have ever existed. With scientific curiosity as boundless as the creature itself, researchers have embarked on a journey to unravel the secrets of this ancient titan.

“Here we report the discovery of a giant madtsoiid snake, one of the largest snakes ever reported, from an interval corresponding to a warm Middle Eocene period (~47 million years ago) of India,” write the researchers in their published paper on Nature, a British scientific journal.

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The snake was likely a slow-moving, ambush predator that subdued its prey by constriction or squeezing them to death, according to the study, which appeared on Thursday.

The report’s two authors, based at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee in Uttarakhand, analysed 27 fossilised vertebrae — some still connected to one another — that were uncovered at a coal mine in Gujarat.

The beginning of the discovery

The saga of Vasuki indicus began in 2005 when the cache of fossilised vertebrae was initially mistaken for remnants of an ancient crocodile-like creature. It wasn’t until 2023 that researchers made a startling revelation: they were in the presence of the remains of an ancient serpent of unparalleled size and grandeur.

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With painstaking precision, the team analysed these fossilised vertebrae, piecing together clues about the creature’s size, habitat, and behaviour. What emerged was a portrait of a creature so vast that its very existence seemed to defy belief.

How large was the snake?

“There are a number of possible reasons for its large size which range from favourable environment with ample food resources to lack of natural predators,” coauthors Debajit Datta, a postdoctoral fellow, and Sunil Bajpai, a professor of palaeontology, told CNN in a joint email.

“Another driving force could be the prevalence of warmer climatic conditions than at present,” they said.

Based on the size of the preserved vertebrae, the researchers estimated that the snake would have been 10.9 meters (36 feet) to 15.2 meters (50 feet) in length, based on two different calculation methods, with a broad and cylindrical body.

Datta and Bajpai think Vasuki indicus likely lived on land rather than in water, similar to anacondas, but its size probably prevented it from climbing trees.

They cautioned that their estimates of its size should be taken carefully because they didn’t have a complete skeleton. However, they suggested that Vasuki indicus could have been as large as Titanoboa, the largest known snake species.

Titanoboa, discovered from fossils in Colombia, weighed around 1,140 kilogrammes (2,500 pounds) and measured about 13 meters (42.7 feet) from nose to tail tip.

The climate connection

As with many mysteries of the natural world, the story of Vasuki indicus is intricately intertwined with the climate of its time. Snakes, as cold-blooded creatures, are highly sensitive to environmental temperature, with warmer climates providing ideal conditions for growth and development.

“Their internal body temperature fluctuates with the ambient temperature of the environment,” the authors said. “So, higher ambient temperatures would have increased the internal body temperature and metabolic rate of Vasuki which in turn would have allowed it to grow so large.”

Datta and Bajpai said the snake lived in a coastal marsh and swamp. “We cannot say precisely what sort of animals Vasuki ate,” they said. “Associated fossils collected from the rocks that yielded Vasuki include ray fish, bony fish (catfish), turtles, crocodilians and even primitive whales. Vasuki may have preyed upon some of these.”

As the saga of Vasuki indicus continues to captivate the imagination, one thing remains abundantly clear: in the annals of natural history, truth is often stranger than fiction.

With inputs from agencies