The giant snake that stalked the Earth (BBC)
By Jane O'Brien
BBC News, Washington
A recently discovered prehistoric monster snake provides answers about the past - and raises questions for the future.
Around 58 million years ago, a monstrous snake slithered out of the swampy jungles of South America and began a reign of terror.
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The fossils were exposed by excavation at the massive Cerrejon open-face coal mine in northern Colombia. In 2002, scientists had discovered at that site the remains of a tropical rainforest from the Palaeocene Epoch - perhaps the planet's first.
As well as fossilised leaves and plants, they unearthed reptiles so big they defied imagination.
"What we found was a giant world of lost reptiles - turtles the size of a kitchen table and the biggest crocodiles in the history of fossil records," says Jonathan Bloch, an expert in vertebrate evolution at the University of Florida.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17544885
This was LBN a while back -- but I don't recall reading the background details before.
= new reply since forum marked as read
