# Ancient crocodile relative from the land of Titanoboa, world's largest snake: Researc



## News Bot (Sep 15, 2011)

Did an ancient crocodile relative give the world's largest snake a run for its money? In a new study, researchers describe a new 20-foot extinct species discovered in the same Colombian coal mine with Titanoboa, the world's largest snake. The findings help scientists better understand the diversity of animals that occupied the oldest known rainforest ecosystem, which had higher temperatures than today, and could be useful for understanding the impacts of a warmer climate in the future.

*Published On:* 15-Sep-11 10:23 AM
*Source:* ScienceDaily

*Go to Original Article*


----------



## RickLeekong (Sep 15, 2011)

News Bot said:


> Did an ancient crocodile relative give the world's largest snake a run for its money? In a new study, researchers describe a new 20-foot extinct species discovered in the same Colombian coal mine with Titanoboa, the world's largest snake. The findings help scientists better understand the diversity of animals that occupied the oldest known rainforest ecosystem, which had higher temperatures than today, and could be useful for understanding the impacts of a warmer climate in the future.
> 
> *Published On:* 15-Sep-11 10:23 AM
> *Source:* ScienceDaily
> ...


very interesting


----------



## SteveNT (Sep 15, 2011)

I'm a bit confused. How can a 60myo animal be an ancestor to a group that has been around for a couple of hundred million years?

Snake sounds impressive though!


----------



## mmafan555 (Sep 24, 2011)

I wish Titanoboa was still around..Talk about an absolute monster


----------



## Enlil (Oct 13, 2011)

SteveNT said:


> I'm a bit confused. How can a 60myo animal be an ancestor to a group that has been around for a couple of hundred million years?
> 
> Snake sounds impressive though!



_So the picture said "60-million-year-old ancestor of crocodiles" that could be true as the phylogeny of crocodiles like other animals is always revised, but as modern crocs are in the clad Eusuchis which is with Neosuchis and both this and modern species belong to Neosuchis, and as Eusuchis comes from the Early Cretaceous and this species from the middle -late Palaeocene, I doubt very much it is an ancestor. As the two diverged at an earlier date, so the best that can fit is a relative as stated in the article._


----------

