In a paper published in Nature scientists announced the discovery of the world’s largest snake, a prehistoric beast which preyed on giant turtles and crocodile-like reptiles in South America after the demise of the dinosaurs. As amazing as the discovery is, its greatest importance may be the clues it provides conservationists about the future of tropical forests under various global warming scenarios.
"At its greatest width, the snake would have come up to about your hips," David Polly said, Indiana University Bloomington geologist. "The size is pretty amazing. But our team went a step further and asked, how warm would the Earth have to be to support a body of this size?"
Polly’s question was important for several reasons. First, fossils in tropical forests are extremely rare due to the lack of bare rock: the snake, christened titanoboa, was found in a coal mine. It is one of the very few fossils from that period in South America.
"Until now, ...