Smithsonian Channel

Carlos Jaramillo has spent the past 5 years digging through the largest open pit mine on earth. He’s discovered fossilized plants, pollen, and skeletons over 60 million years old. What he didn’t expect to find, was the fossilized remains of snakes over 43 feet long!

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to interview Carlos who is stationed at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. He explained the research that led to this discovery and the fascinating information that can be collected from the fossils. Listen to our phone conversation below.

Oh, be sure to take note of Carlos’ description of the snake’s size. This really puts it into perspective! (timecode is 3.19)

Carlos Jaramillo, the scientist who discovered the bones of the world’s largest snake

Show Notes: (below are time codes for the interview in case you want to listen to a particular topic)

0.31 – Carlos explains how his research team discovered the Titanoboa fossils in a mine in Colombia.

1.25 – Carlos explains what he was looking for and what it could tell him about ancient ecosystems.

1.57 – The first vertebrae was found as early as 2004.

2.42 – The first time they saw the vertebrae they realized it was a huge animal.

3.50 – The snake can tell us a lot about the climate of the rain forest at that time.

5.09 – the snakes probably lived close to water and consumed large freswater turtles.

6.00 – Carlos explains that the current temperatures of the tropics cannot support such a massive snake today.

6.53 – Carlos discusses how this discovery impacts his research and his plans for the future.