Unveiling Vasuki Indicus: The Ancient Titan of Snakes!
“Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, ... I am convinced that Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification.” ~ Charles Darwin.
Step back in time, to an era when Earth was home to giants, including the colossal serpent known as Vasuki Indicus! Recently unearthed in Gujarat, India, this remarkable fossil dates back 47 million years, offering a glimpse into a world where snakes ruled the land.
This incredible discovery was made by paleontologists Sunil Bajpai and Debajit Datta from the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee. Their journey began in a lignite mine in Gujarat's Kutch region, where they stumbled upon 27 well-preserved vertebrae of Vasuki Indicus.
Piecing together these ancient bones, Bajpai and Datta estimated the snake's length to be between 10.9 to 15.2 meters. Their findings suggest that Vasuki Indicus was a slow-moving predator that likely used its immense body to squeeze prey to death, much like modern-day anacondas.
Stretching between 10.9 to 15.2 meters in length, Vasuki Indicus was a slow-moving predator that likely used its massive body to wrap around prey, squeezing them to death. The fossilized remains, consisting of 27 well-preserved vertebrae, paint a vivid picture of a creature that once thrived in the forested swamps of Kutch.
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee believe that Vasuki Indicus originated in India around 88 million years ago, before spreading to Africa via Europe. Despite its size, this ancient serpent may have relied on ambush tactics for hunting, much like its modern relatives.
Vasuki Indicus belonged to the now extinct madtsoiidae snake family from 100 million years ago, a relic of the Late Cretaceous to the Late Pleistocene geological era. It lived across a broad geographical range, including Africa, Europe, and India. The reptile is closely related to other large madtsoiid snakes (Madtsoia pisdurensis) from the Late Cretaceous of India and the Late Eocene of North Africa (Gigantophis garstini).
The authors say the snake represents a distinct lineage that originated in India at around 28°C about 88 million years ago when the Gondwana supercontinent broke up and the Indian landmass got isolated. “Since this group was dominated by madtsoiids from India and Vasuki was the most primitive ancestor in the family tree, we inferred that this group of snakes originated in India,” Bajpai says.
Roughly 50 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia, and land connections formed with North Africa through southern Eurasia allowed madtsoiid snakes to disperse and evolve. According to Bajpai, this was most likely how the North African giant madtsoiid Gigantophis garstini originated.
“While high temperatures spur the development of large bodies in snakes and other cold-blooded organisms, current temperatures are rising too fast for these snakes to become as massive as they did in the past,” Datta says.
The discovery of Vasuki Indicus offers a fascinating glimpse into India's ancient ecosystems. It is believed that this giant snake originated in India around 88 million years ago, before spreading to Africa via Europe.
Join us as we delve deeper into the mysteries of Vasuki Indicus, unravelling the secrets of Earth's ancient past one vertebra at a time!