If any of you have been keeping track, you might have noticed that Everett sent us in a drawing of a Titanoboa last week. If you’re really in the loop, you might know that Everett is Simon’s brother. And that Simon is known for famously inventing very interesting and compelling “facts” about our different monthly themes.
See, for example, his giant tree, the Hypselofolius, or his “facts” about the “Ancient Desert Velatitan”, or his book about ice cream in which he noted that moose tracks ice cream has been used to polish shoes. So, I have to say that I was inclined not to believe that the “Titanoboa” was anything but a figment of Everett’s imagination.
As a third child, I should know not to judge a younger child on the actions/skills/talents of an older sibling (I was neither good at math (my older sister) nor lacrosse (my older brother))!
It turns out that Titanoboas are, in fact, not made up at all! They are HUGE snakes – about 40 feet long (that’s about the height of a 4-story building!!!). Their bellies are about waist-high. That’s a pretty big belly. And so you will be delighted to know that they also are 100% extinct.
They lived about 60 million years ago, right after the dinosaurs went extinct. I guess all the dinosaurs dying out left some room for giant, honking, terrifying snakes.
The Smithsonian Museum created a life-size fake version of a Titanoboa for a traveling exhibition. Here’s a pretty cool video that gives you a good sense of how huge they really were:
But more than that, this video gives you a good sense of what truly cool jobs there are out there in the world. Wouldn’t it be fun to spend your days making giant things out of styrofoam and plaster and paint (even if they were snakes)?