Vasuki Indicus

Source-This post on Vasuki Indicus has been created based on the article “Fossils of massive prehistoric snake found in lignite mine in Gujarat” published in “The Hindu” on 19 April 2024.

Why in the news?

Researchers have discovered the fossils of one of the largest snakes that ever existed, which has been named Vasuki Indicus.

About Vasuki Indicus

Location-The fossils of Vasuki indicus were found in Kutch, Gujarat.

Description-Vasuki is the name of the mythical snake often seen around the neck of the Hindu god Shiva.

Time period-It lived in the Middle Eocene period (roughly 47 million years ago) in India.
The organism lived at a time when temperatures were relatively warm, at roughly 28 °C.

Family-It belonged to the now-extinct Madtsoiidae snake family. However, it represents a unique lineage from India.Madtsoiidae are Gondwanan terrestrial snakes that lived between the Upper Cretaceous (100.5 million to 66 million years ago) and the Late Pleistocene (0.126 million years ago to 0.012 million years ago).

Habitat-These snakes moved from India across southern Eurasia and into North Africa after the Indian subcontinent collided into Eurasia around 50 million years ago.

Features:
1) It reached lengths between 10 and 15 metres long and 1 tonne in weight.

2)It probably had a broad and cylindrical body, hinting at a robust and powerful build.It was as large as Titanoboa, a huge snake that lived on Earth and is said to be the longest ever discovered.

3) It was a slow-moving predator that would catch its prey by squeezing, similar to anacondas and pythons.

Read more–Gondwana land

UPSC Syllabus-Species in news