Fossil of monster snake found in Colombia

— -- Indiana Jones, take heart: A snake on the loose 58 million years ago would help anyone understand your phobia.

Scientists have unearthed the fossilized remains of the largest snake ever discovered: a 42-foot behemoth weighing more than a ton, according to an analysis in today's issue of the journal Nature. By studying fossilized sections of the remains, scientists were able to estimate the size of the crocodile-consuming boa.

The study says titanoboa (it means "titanic boa") was the largest non-marine vertebrate from the epoch following the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and "greatly exceeds the largest verifiable body lengths" of the largest-known python (29.53 feet) or Eunectes, a species of which the anaconda is a member (22.97 feet).

Titanoboa is a relative of the modern-day anaconda, a non-venomous snake inhabiting freshwater rivers in Central and South America and preying on carnivores it crushes with powerful muscles. A meal is satisfied with one long gulp.

The vertebrae of titanoboa were found in a large coal mine in northeastern Colombia, an area the researchers report is the oldest-known rainforest in the Americas.

Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama has been studying in the coal mine for six years.

"It's a fantastic viewing opportunity and perfect place to find fossils," he said Monday.

When the botanist came across the fossils, he invited Jonathan Bloch, a curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the University of Florida, to visit. Together, they excavated the remains and shipped them to the University of Florida.

"I thought he had to be 100 feet long when I saw the vertebrae," Bloch said.

Bloch said he immediately contacted Jason Head of the University of Toronto, a biologist and specialist in "the evolution of big snakes," and showed him the vertebrae during a video chat.

"It was a moment," Head said. "The next thing I knew, I went down to Florida and we were starting our work."