Colossal prehistoric snake larger than bus and believed to weigh a ton discovered

A reconstruction of the 27 vertebrae of Vasuki indicus (Image: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee / Scientific Reports)

The remains of an ancient 50-foot extinct snake that was said to be one of the largest that ever lived has been discovered in a mine in western India.

The Vasuki indicus specimen dates back 47 million years, during the Eocene Epoch, and is considered to have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. 

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee have unearthed at least 27 fossils representing a "partial vertebral column" of the giant snake at a mine, and were able to positively identify them. 

The snake stretched an estimated 36 feet to 50 feet, and could have weighed up to 2,200 pounds. 

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The Vasuki indicus is comparable to the largest known snake, the Titanoboa (Image: Getty)

The extinct specimen is believed to have surpassed the current record-holder Titanoboa, the largest known snake at about 42 feet that once lived in prehistoric Colombia.

The newly discovered behemoth lived 47 million years ago in western India’s swampy evergreen forests.

They gave it the name Vasuki indicus after “the mythical snake king Vasuki, who wraps around the neck of the Hindu deity Shiva,” Debajit Datta, a co-author of the study, said.  

Researchers suggests the snake typically lives in a relatively warm climate of about 28 degrees Celsius. 

Fragments of the snake’s backbone were discovered in 2005 by co-author Sunil Bajpai, based at the same institute, near Kutch, Gujarat, in western India.