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Re: Huge Freakin' Snake!




The largest champsosaurs (choristoderes), which were freshwater reptiles, also 
come from the Paleocene.  Though at 3m long, they weren't a patch on 
_Titanoboa_.


Cheers

Tim


--- On Thu, 2/5/09, David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:

> From: David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
> Subject: Re: Huge Freakin' Snake!
> To: "DML" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> Date: Thursday, February 5, 2009, 5:34 AM
> >> Considering this super-snake lived only a few
> million years after the end
> >> Cretaceous extinction event,  I wonder if this was
> an attempt by ectotherms
> >> to occupy the megapredator roles vacated by
> dinosaur extinction?
> > 
> > Either that, or they couldn't reach such sizes
> while dinosaurs and marine reptiles were around -
> > either because they'd eat such a (presumably) slow
> snake or out-compete it.
> 
> I think constricting snakes just can't help it: they
> automatically get as large as they can possibly get away
> with. And that depends on four factors: food availability,
> climate, tyrannosaurs, and mosasaurs. Two of these factors
> differed between the Cretaceous and the middle Paleocene...