Existing comment:
What Does a 48-foot Snake Eat?
Anything that fits in its mouth!
Titanoboa probably ate fish, turtles, and crocodiles, and a single large meal may have lasted the snake for a year. For a 48-foot constrictor, killing its prey wouldn't have taken long. Swallowing and digesting a half ton of blunt-nosed crocodile was another matter.
Snakes' upper and lower jaws are attached by long tendons and muscles, allowing them to open their mouths very wide. They can also separate their lower jaws at their "chin" and spread them apart, dramatically increasing their gape.
To digest prey, snakes like Titanoboa expand their digestive systems and generate the stomach acids necessary to dissolve bone and tissue.
And what ate them?
The species of crocodiles Titanoboa feasted on might have preyed on the giant snake's young. New research has revealed widely spaced tooth marks on the shells of giant turtles, hinting at an even larger crocodile -- as long as 40 feet (13 m) -- quite capable of preying on an adult Titanoboa. |