US EditionScientists Discover Why Anacondas Stayed Giants for 12 Million Years
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5 Articles
Science Daily
ecotopical.comScientists discover why anacondas stayed giants for 12 million years
Ancient anaconda fossils show that the snakes became giants soon after emerging in Miocene South America. Their size has stayed stable for over 12 million years, even though other huge reptiles went extinct. Surprisingly, warmer periods didn’t make anacondas bigger—just more widespread. Today they remain large thanks to surviving patches of ideal wetland habitat.
Living Large: Giant Anacondas Blew Up 12 Million Years Ago
Twelve million years ago, during the Miocene, South America was covered in an even larger tropical jungle than its current verdant swath, with some key differences. Warmer temperatures, damper wetlands, and more bountiful food sources made it a paradise for reptiles, and they were living large—literally. Nine-foot turtles swam through rivers while 42-foot caimans trundled along the banks. Now, according to new research published in Journal of Ve…
While the majority of the giant species that populated the Earth millions of years ago have disappeared or narrowed, some have surprisingly escaped this trend. This is the case of anacondas, a snake from South America whose average size — between 4 and 5 meters — has hardly changed for more than 12 million years. A recent study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, reveals that this marsh giant has reached its present stature sin…
Scientists found fossils of vertices, which were compared to the size of the current species
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