Meet Vasuki indicus, world’s largest snake that was found in…, weight almost…

According to Hindu mythology Lord Shiva has the king of nagas coiled around his neck.

Indian mythology is replete with stories and origin stories of the gods and goddesses. Vasuki was considered the serpent king coiled around Lord Shiva. Recently, a massive snake fossil was discovered that is considered to be of Vasuki Indicus. Scientifically, this is considered is an extinct genus of a type of snake that is found in India. Owing to the vertebrates, it is the longest snake in the world.

According to a Reuters reports Scientists had recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few still in the same position as they would have been when the limbless reptile was alive. They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus, would have looked like a modern-day large python and would not have been venomous.

This was discovered in 2024 in Gujarat. It is examined to be longer than a T-rex!

The mine is located in the Panandhro area of the Kutch district in western India’s state of Gujarat. Lignite is the lowest grade of coal. “Considering its large size, Vasuki was a slow-moving ambush predator that would subdue its prey through constriction like anacondas and pythons. This snake lived in a marshy swamp near the coast at a time when global temperatures were higher than today,” said Debajit Datta, a postdoctoral researcher in paleontology at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) and lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Because of the incomplete nature of the Vasuki remains, the researchers gave an estimated length range of 36-49 feet (11-15 meters) and a rough estimate of a metric ton in weight.

These huge snakes lived during the Cenozoic era, which began after the dinosaur age ended 66 million years ago.

(With Reuters Inputs)