Imagine encountering a snake longer than a school bus and weighing over a ton. It may sound like a scene straight out of a horror movie, but new research suggests that such a giant snake actually roamed the Earth millions of years ago in India.
According to a Scientific Report published on April 18, fossilized vertebrae found in western India near a coal mine indicate that the snake was between 36 to 50 feet long, making it the largest snake ever discovered. To put this into perspective, that’s up to eight feet longer than the largest known snake and nearly 17 feet longer than the current largest living snake, the reticulated python.
The newly discovered snake has been named “Vasuki indicus,” after the mythical snake king Vasuki from Hinduism, who wraps around the neck of the Hindu deity Shiva. Its estimated size is based on comparisons to the vertebrae of living snakes, and researchers believe it lived around 47 million years ago.
Despite its massive size, Vasuki indicus was not a fast-moving predator. It most likely relied on the tactic of constriction to subdue its prey, which could have included catfish, turtles, crocodiles, and even primitive whales. This giant snake would have been a true apex predator, dominating its ecosystem with ease.
An ancient species of snake, Vasuki Indicus, lived around 47 million years ago in the state of Gujarat in India. It could have been one of the largest snake species to have ever lived on Earth. CREDIT: Interesting Engineering #IndianSnake pic.twitter.com/1FpQvzgj9c
— rocksolidfossils (@rocksolidfossil) April 19, 2024
Interestingly, reports of giant snakes similar in size to Vasuki indicus can be found in various parts of the world, but they are often dismissed as hoaxes. In South America, for example, legends of giant serpents like the “Yacumama” and “Sachamama” have been described to be over 100 feet long. Cryptozoologists, who study cryptids – animals that have been claimed to exist but have never been proven – also point to other examples of supposed giant snakes living in different parts of the world.
One notable example is the Belgian Air Force Colonel Remy Van Lierde’s encounter with a 50-foot snake in 1959 while flying over what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Van Lierde described the snake as having a 2-foot wide and 3-foot long head and stated that it could have easily eaten a man. He even claimed to have taken a photograph of the snake, but its authenticity is still debated.
More recently, a video went viral in 2023 claiming to show a 50-foot snake living in the Congo. However, fact-checkers quickly debunked it.
While we may never know if these cryptids truly existed, the discovery of Vasuki indicus in India certainly adds more intrigue to the study of these elusive creatures. Who knows, there may be more secrets yet to be unlocked in the depths of our planet’s past.
