- It is a manling!
- It is I, Mowgli, Kaa.
- The little frog?
- That's an encounter between Mowgli,
and the giant snake, Kaa,
from Zoltan Korda's 1942 adaptation
of Kipling's "The Jungle Book".
- But the real-life heavyweight snake champion of the world?
Let's find out!
(whooshing)
(electronic music)
- [Robert] Everyone loves a giant snake tale.
Heck, myth and religion are practically infested with them.
Especially those cosmic world serpents
that are tied to the creation
or destruction of the universe.
Like the Norse Jormungandr,
or Hinduism's Sesanaga.
Today, their fictional descendens continue to enthrall us.
Whether antagonizing Conan the Barbarian,
or simply vomiting up a half-digested Jon Voight
in 1997's "Anaconda".
But let's turn to real life.
Which snake species is the largest?
- [Julie] The modern serpent queen's crown
rests most easily on the heads of either
the Asian reticulated python, Python reticulatus,
so called for its geometric color pattern.
Or, the South American green anaconda, Eunectes murinus.
If you're an avid reality TV viewer,
you might remember the green anaconda Chumana,
which failed to gobble up Eaten Alive host Paul Rosolie.
- [Robert] Many sources tend to credit
the reticulated python with the greatest record length,
while crediting the heavier semiaquatic green anaconda
with the greatest overall weight and size.
Others just go ahead and award
the green anaconda top honors.
You might expect there to be a bit
more scientific certainty on this matter,
but you'd be quite wrong.
- [Julie] Giant snake accounts are rather
like giant fish stories.
The maximum size is directly proportional
to the amount of skepticism you choose to employ.
Do you trust that Victorian explorer,
or scrap of local hearsay?
Do you ignore how stretched that skin appears
in that 50 year old photograph?
Ultimately, record measurements in the wild
are few, far between, and easily bungled or exaggerated.
- [Robert] For instance, an alleged
33 foot reticulated python
from a 1946 natural history magazine story
continues to pop up in articles on giant snakes.
Though herpetologist John C. Murphy dismisses this,
and any wild reticulated python length greater than 25 feet.
- [Julie] But please, go ahead and believe HN Ridley's
1899 mention of a, quote,
"specimen measuring 40 feet having been reported
"as obtained by a scientific expedition in Manila",
if you crave size over documentation.
- [Robert] And then there's the green anaconda.
According to German herpetologist Lutz Dirksen,
the larger females typically reach lengths of nine feet
and weigh upward of 200 pounds.
Dirksen cites a record 29-foot account,
while Murphy entertains the possible reliability
of up to 32-foot measurements.
- [Julie] But again, leave your skepticism on the nightstand
and you can revel in Fritz W. Up de Graff's
dubious 1923 account of a 50 to 60 foot,
or 15 to 18 meter green anaconda.
- [Robert] Either way you shake the reputable data, however,
the green anaconda wins the heavyweight title.
With its mass suspended in its watery habitat,
this apex predator can hit the scales at 441 pounds
a good 100 pounds heavier
than most of the largest reported pythons.
- [Julie] The maximum size for either species
is determined by both ambient environmental temperature
and metabolic rate,
in addition to a steady diet of things to swallow whole.
And so to find a larger snake,
we have to turn up the heat
and venture into even steamier jungles on an ancient Earth.
- [Robert] 60 million years ago you'd find
just such a tropical hell in the Cerrejon rainforest,
located in modern-day Colombia.
We're talking average yearly temperatures
of 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
Far hotter than modern tropical rainforest temperatures.
- [Julie] Here, Titanoboa made its home,
feasting on equally giant turtles and crocs
in the oldest known American rainforest.
By comparing the creature's fossilized vertebrae
to existing snake specimens,
paleontologists estimate its tip to tail length
at a whopping 42 feet, or 13 meters,
and its crushing weight at more than a ton.
- [Robert] Certainly, there's room enough
for larger serpents in the shadows of prehuman history,
but for now Titanoboa reigns supreme as Queen of Serpents,
and the largest snake ever
to slink its way through the jungle.
Hey, if you enjoyed this video,
be sure to check out these three videos as well.
- [Julie] And don't forget to visit us
at stufftoblowyourmind.com.
- [Robert] That is some horrifying BBC footage
of a giant leech consuming an earthworm in Borneo.
- [Julie] We know, you're terrified
and need a little comfort.
Well, have some science, please.
You know, I'm not all that shocked
by Miley Cyrus's 2013 VMA performance,
but the real star of that show?
It is her tongue.
- [Robert] Yeah, why is it constantly
sticking out of her face?
We're gonna look at the world of human biology,
and reptile biology for a possible answer.
- Ah, Medusa.
I have long held a torch for that monstrous vixen.
And her curious anatomy is never far from my imagination.
(soft tone)