Florida's Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has a 65-foot replica of Titanoboa, the world’s largest snake (to date) to ever crawl the e
Florida's Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has a 65-foot replica of Titanoboa, the world’s largest snake (to date) to ever crawl the earth. The snake, built out of foam, features more than 20,000 scales that were placed individually and transported to the zoo by flatbed truck in three sections.
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The exhibit, "Titanoboa: Prehistoric Mega Snake" opened March 7. The replica was created by Pizazz, a firm that has created sculptures for the zoo’s "Range of the Jaguar" exhibit.
Fossils of Titanoboa (Titanoboa cerrejonensis), which lived more than 60 million years ago, were discovered in a Colombian coal mine in 2005, including three fairly intact skulls, by a team of scientists led by Dr. Jonathan Bloch of the University of Florida and Dr. Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Scientists estimate the snake was 48 feet long, 27 inches wide, and weighed 2,500 pounds.
John B. Virata keeps a western hognose snake, a ball python, two corn snakes, a kingsnake, and two leopard geckos. His first snake, a California kingsnake, was purchased at the Pet Place in Westminster, CA for $5. His first pet reptile was a green anole that arrived in a small box via mail order. Follow him on Twitter @johnvirata
