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Hi again Evelyn and friends,

Let me introduce you to THE monster snake - fortunately no longer alive, but who knows? It might come back any time now... je, je, je especially in dreams :-)~~~

Monster titanoboa snake invades New York

By Claudine Zap | The Upshot – Wed, Mar 21, 2012

New York commuters arriving at Grand Central Station were greeted by a monstrous sight: a 48-foot-long, 2,500-pound titanoboa snake.

Click image for more photos

The good news: It's not alive. Anymore. But the full-scale replica of the reptile -- which was unveiled at the commuter hub on March 22 -- is intended, as Smithsonian spokesperson Randall Kremer joked, to "scare the daylights out of people" -- actually has a higher calling: to "communicate science to a lot of people." The scientifically scary-accurate model will go a long way toward that: If this snake slithered by you, it would be waist-high and measure the length of a school bus. Think of it as the T-rex of snakes.

This newly discovered species, known as titanoboa (yes, the words "titan" and "boa" are in there), which lived 65 million years ago, is about to have its close-up. The New York City appearance is promoting an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in D.C. opening on March 30, which ties in to a TV special on the Smithsonian Channel called, what else, "Titanoboa: Monster Snake." The two-hour program airs April 1.

Watch video here

Remains of the titanoboa were first discovered in a Colombian coal mine in 2005. One of the researchers specializing in the Paleocene era, the time after the death of the dinosaurs, was Jonathan Bloch. A vertebrate paleontologist from University of Florida's Museum of Natural History, the scientist led multiple expeditions, along with Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The team collected remains from the mine, which resulted in the find.Together with ancient-snake expert Jason Head of the University of Nebraska, they named the world's largest snake Titanoboa.

Speaking on the phone to Yahoo! News, Bloch admitted that when the team was first collecting the skeletons of Titanoboa, he didn't immediately understand what he had found until he returned to the lab. With the help of his students, he was able to identify the fossils as snakes, just much, much bigger than the ones of today. He described the enormous vertebrae as "sort of like if you saw a mouse skull the size of rhino skull."

The predator, which is related to a boa constrictor but actually behaved like an anaconda, lived in water and fed on fish, other titanoboas, and crocodiles (very, very large crocodiles).

If this sounds like Hollywood's next blockbuster, Bloch noted that this time around, truth is actually bigger than fiction: The predator from the movie "Anaconda," for one, is not as big as titanoboa. "This is really an example where reality and the past have exceeded the imaginations of Hollywood."

Update 1:16 ET: The post was updated once the event at Grand Central Station took place.

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Oh my Miguel, I do not like snakes and never have. Growing up on a farm it wasn't unusual to see them anywhere, especially around the barn or the chicken house and I thought one my grandmother found in the hen's nest one time was big at over 6' but this one makes that one look like a baby.

You may have seen me post about the one that was in the shrubbery just outside my office window right after I moved here last November. It was quite long and stretched out in the shrubbery and had it's head raised up and looking in the window at me. I thought if I banged on the window it would scare it away but it didn't phase it and as a matter of fact it kept staring in the window at me and sticking out it's tongue. I left the room for a while and when I came back it was gone. I haven't seen anymore so hopefully that was a one time thing.

:(

Helen you are so NOT encouraging. If I ever found a snake in my house I would probably have a heart attack. I hope everything is sealed up tight enough that one couldn't get in. My house is made of concrete and I don't really know if one could get in or not.

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Hi Evelyn

I think that snake is hiding in your bedroom. They can slink anywhere, you know. LOL

Helen
PS ...I hope this helps :))

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Oh my Miguel, I do not like snakes and never have. Growing up on a farm it wasn't unusual to see them anywhere, especially around the barn or the chicken house and I thought one my grandmother found in the hen's nest one time was big at over 6' but this one makes that one look like a baby.

You may have seen me post about the one that was in the shrubbery just outside my office window right after I moved here last November. It was quite long and stretched out in the shrubbery and had it's head raised up and looking in the window at me. I thought if I banged on the window it would scare it away but it didn't phase it and as a matter of fact it kept staring in the window at me and sticking out it's tongue. I left the room for a while and when I came back it was gone. I haven't seen anymore so hopefully that was a one time thing.

:(

Hi Helen, I had seen this before but it has been a looonnnng time ago and as I watched, I had to laugh again. To be honest though, if something like this happened to me I would be furious. Can you imagine how uncomfortable it would be wearing soaking wet clothing until you could get home and get changed and what if the temperature outside was cold or you were riding in a car with cloth seats? The seats would probably take a long to dry.

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You'll enjoy this even if you've seen it before.....

Helen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaBX9xwqXg