All language subtitles for Titanoboa Monster Snake (2012) 1

A lost world of
giants, 60 million years old.

Ruled by a slithery monarch
of unbelievable size.

It sounds like fantasy, but it's not.

This world was once here.

Among these seams of coal
lies the evidence.

This is
a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,

really, this is just amazing.

A treasure trove of fossils.

One, a terrifying stealth killer,

straight from our darkest nightmares.

You make a discovery

and you know that
it's gonna be something

that everyone knows about.

Narrator: It's the biggest
of its kind ever to live.

Man: We're absolutely ecstatic,
we were giddy schoolboys.

Narrator: This mighty predator
dominated then disappeared.

Now, science is bringing it back.

Wow.

This is Titanoboa.

65 and a half million years ago,

a giant meteorite hits the earth
near Mexico.

The rule of the dinosaur is over.

The next 10 million years is
one of the most mysterious times

in earth's history,

and in one part,
the South American tropics,

the mystery is total.

There is only silence,

until something remarkable happens.

This is Cerrejon.

A grand canyon carved by vast machines,

gouging out 35 million tons
of coal every year.

A hole in the earth the size
of 8,000 football fields.

But this mine is not just
spitting out coal,

it's also an accidental time machine.

Every layer is a slice
of earth's history.

In December 2002, a sharp-eyed
Colombian geology student,

Fabiany Herrera, spotted
something completely unexpected

at the mine...

A fossilized leaf.

It was the first tiny step in an
unparalleled scientific quest.

Over the coming decade,

it would reveal a vanished world
and a lost time.

Herrera showed the fossilized
leaf to his mentor,

an expert in prehistoric plants.

Carlos Jaramillo: He brought
the leaf back to the lab

and I realized the amazing opportunity

and potential that this mine had.

Narrator: Carlos Jaramillo
eventually got permission

for a team of scientists
to dig at Cerrejon.

The results were extraordinary.

The single leaf fossil was only
the first clue to the lost world

that emerged after the dinosaurs.

They found the very first bean plants

and fossils showing an explosion
of plant families,

like the banana,

the palm,

the avocado,

and even chocolate.

It all added up to a huge
and stunning discovery.

Jaramillo: The coal itself
is a chunk of rainforest

that is preserved back in time.

Fabiany Herrera: We believe that

this might represent

the birth of modern rainforest

in South America.

Narrator: 60 million years ago,
this massive bowl of coal

contained the first recorded
tropical rainforest.

This is the new living earth

that emerges after the meteorite
destroys the old.

Amid the coal dust, it seems
almost impossible to imagine it.

Jaramillo:
Today it's a very dry place,

but 60 million years ago,
this was a tropical rainforest

with tree birds meandering,
big trees and mist.

But this is much more

than a story of trees and leaves.

Jaramillo: We want to study
the whole ecosystem,

the geology, the plants,
and the animals.

It is those animals

that will capture
the world's imagination,

identified from an amazing
variety of clues...

Ribs, shells, and vertebrae,
or backbones.

It will need a specialist in
animal fossils to decode them.

In 2004, Jon Bloch, an expert
in fossil vertebrates

traveled from the university
of Florida to Cerrejon

for the first time.

He was astonished.

A whole new ancient world
of vertebrates,

animals with backbones that
would dominate earth's future,

was opening up.

The most exciting
observation was that

these were bones from
the tropics of South America,

from that 10 million years

following the extinction
of the dinosaurs.

And why that was so exciting is
that we had no record whatsoever

of vertebrates on land
during that time period.

We just had no idea what was here.

Narrator: Cerrejon was becoming
a laboratory

for investigating
the lost tropical world.

In 2005, Carlos Jaramillo joined

the Smithsonian tropical
research institute.

It was able to guarantee
this huge endeavor

the long-term backing
it would now need.

Jaramillo:
Every time we come here,

we are mesmerized with
all the new things we found

that we never expected.

Narrator: Jon Bloch and his
colleagues begin their search.

It is soon apparent that the
lost world teems with animals.

Bloch: Initially,
when we started collecting,

especially on this slope,

there was so much bone

that we picked up a lot
of things all at once,

it was almost like a salvage
kind of operation.

Narrator: It's also clear

that two creatures particularly thrive.

Bloch: This is a piece of
a very large turtle here,

and then right next to it,

there's a backbone of
a very large crocodile,

beautifully preserved.

Narrator: The sheer scale
of the fossils is amazing.

Turtles with shells
the size of pool tables,

snub nosed crocodiles as long as an SUV,

and species never seen before.

Bloch: We would pick up things
very quickly, wrap them up,

so we could clean them back
at the lab and then study them.

The turtle
and crocodile fossils

were temporarily loaned
to the research team

by the Colombian geological survey.

Then, one night at the lab
at the university of Florida,

something strange begins to happen.

Grad student Alex Hastings

is sorting yet another box
of fossils from Cerrejon.

Alex Hastings:
I received the fossils

and was just unpacking them
late one night.

All of these were
labeled -croc vert.-

I get out several crocodile vertebrae.

A couple of vertebrae did not match,

they were very, very distinct,
very large,

and I didn't know
exactly what they were.

Other than that I knew

that they were definitely not
of crocodiles.

Narrator: Another grad student,
Jason Bourne,

a reptile specialist,
is also working late that night.

Jason Bourne: So I was just
coming back from class

and Alex was there,

and he just had a couple of
things he wasn't sure about,

and so he said, do you have
any ideas what this might be?

And I picked it up

and I just kind of stared at it
for a second.

It was, you know, crushed pretty flat.

My eyes got really wide

and I was like, oh, this is
a, you know, giant snake.

Hastings: Once we compared
that to modern snakes,

it became incredibly clear

that they were definitely
snake vertebrae,

and we were able to figure out

that we really had,
not only a large snake,

but the largest snake that
has been known to science.

Narrator:
It hardly seems possible.

The vertebrae indicates a snake

vastly bigger than any snake today.

So big that it stretches
the entire length of the lab.

Bourne: Probably this big.

Hastings: That's probably
a bit smaller.

We were absolutely ecstatic,
it was a very exciting moment,

and for that evening, we were
the only people in the world

that knew about it at the time.

It wasn't until the next day

we started bringing in
Jon and everybody else.

So for one evening,
we're the only people that knew

we had this enormous, massive snake,

and we were very, very excited.

Incredible though it is,

it seems two grad students
have on their hands

one of the biggest discoveries
of the century.

It's like finding t-Rex.

The next morning,
a third person, Jon Bloch,

is let in on the secret.

Bourne: I just couldn't wait
to get in the next day

and tell Jon what happened.

You know, I just remember saying,

do you know you have
the largest snake in the world?

And his face just kind of dropped,

and, you know, he was just like,
are you kidding me?

I think, probably,

my reaction was pretty similar
to the reaction

that maybe my seven-year-old son
would have experienced.

And just complete excitement and awe

that such a huge snake exists.

It is a sublime moment

that most scientists can only dream of.

For a few precious hours,

the two young students and
their teacher hold a secret

that will open up a whole
new chapter in natural history.

Bloch: During the course
of your career,

you don't have a lot of moments
where you make a discovery,

and you look at it, and you just
sort of get that feeling,

you know that you're really
not gonna be the only person

that knows about this thing,

that it's gonna be something
that everyone knows about.

The extraordinary
night in the lab

will propel Jon Bloch into
an age-old human obsession.

Snakes have always been symbols
of threat and danger.

From the serpent in the garden of eden,

to the mythical dragon
snakes gave rise to,

they are the beasts humans
must fight or be destroyed by.

An animal that strikes awe and terror

into cultures from ancient China
to the new world.

There are frighteningly good
reasons for these fears.

Around a million people are
bitten by venomous snakes

each year.

Up to 90,000 die.

Tens of millions are gripped
by snake phobia.

The giant discovered in
Cerrejon, though long extinct,

will add an unimaginable
new dimension to snake lore.

But the single vertebra
is only the start.

The team's investigation
will take them away

from the long dead,

into the living world of large snakes.

From there, they will enter
a time tunnel

and confront a creature
unlike any other.

The scourge of the lost
rainforests of South America.

A predator squeezing the life
out of its victims.

The snake to beat all snakes.

Man: It tagged you good,
look at that, Jesus.

Narrator: It was
the fossils unearthed

in the vast coalmine of Cerrejon

that opened up the lost world
of 60 million years ago.

But these ancient bones
give only a glimpse

of the creatures that live there.

To see the past more clearly,

the team turn their attention
to the animals of today.

After the students'
discovery in the lab,

the next stop for
the investigating scientists

is the collection of
modern snake skeletons

at the Florida museum
of natural history.

Its biggest specimen
is from an anaconda,

the heaviest snake living today.

How will its backbone compare

with the giant vertebra from Cerrejon?

Bloch: We went and got a
skeleton of a 17-foot anaconda,

which was the largest anaconda
that we had in our collections.

That's a big snake.

The largest piece of
the backbone of that snake,

and it was about this big,

compared to the vertebra
that we've just unwrapped,

which was about this big.

So, you know, I thought,
well, my goodness,

if this is 17 feet,
then this thing must be 80 feet.

Narrator: The team
is finding itself

swept up in an enduring pursuit...

The quest for the world's longest snake.

One pioneer was the Victorian
explorer Percy Fawcett

who claimed to have seen
a 60-foot-long anaconda

in the South American rainforest.

But he went missing in the forest

before supplying any evidence

and was never seen again.

In 1912, the former U.S.
President Theodore Roosevelt

offered a prize at the Bronx zoo
of $1,000

to anyone who could produce a snake

of more than 30 feet in length.

Explorers and collectors
scoured the globe,

from Peru to the Congo.

But a 30-foot snake remained
tantalizingly elusive.

A species from Asia,
the reticulated python,

has come the closest,

measuring up to a staggering
28 and a half feet.

But not one snake has yet
been brought forward

that can claim Roosevelt's
century-old prize.

Zoos across the world
remain on the lookout

for the longest snake.

One of the oldest is the
zoological society of London,

where Ian Stephen is
the resident snake expert.

Ian Stephen: Whether it's
the biggest dinosaur on earth,

you know, the blue whale,

people are always fascinated
by big animals.

It's almost every
reptile curator's dream,

I think, sort of secretly

to have the biggest snake in the world.

Narrator: But the size
of these modern snakes

is nothing compared with that

suggested by the find at Cerrejon.

After the discovery
of the giant vertebra,

Jon Bloch contacted Jason head,
an expert on extinct snakes,

at the university of Nebraska.

We were unwrapping fossils
from Cerrejon this morning,

we found something really incredible

that I wanted to show you.

By now, more and more
huge vertebrae

were being unearthed at Cerrejon.

Jon began by showing
one of the smaller examples.

I think it's
a snake fossil, but it's big.

Yeah, sure.

Jason still vividly
remembers that video conference.

Jason head: Jon's students
had actually realized

that they had a very large snake fossil.

And Jon brought it to the video camera,

and he held it up and said,

look at this, I think this must
be the world's biggest snake.

That's definitely a snake,

and that specimen is about
the same size as Gigantophis,

so that's the same size
as the largest known snake.

Narrator: Gigantophis, which
Jason had recently measured,

was the largest snake so far
known to have lived on earth.

36 million years ago,

it preyed on primitive elephants
in the swamps of Egypt

and measured a colossal 33 feet.

Jason's world record holder
was now under challenge.

Head: The vertebra he showed me
was about the same size,

and I was kind of, you know,

it's big, but maybe it's not that big.

Bloch:
Okay, yeah, we have others.

I mean, he was impressed,
it was a big snake,

but he wasn't really
taken aback, he'd seen bigger.

So, at that point, I felt like
I hadn't really given him

the correct impression.

Narrator: Jon had a larger
vertebra from Cerrejon

up his sleeve.

Head: And he said, well,
hold on, I'll be right back.

Bloch: So I went running
out of the room

and grabbed the biggest one I could find

that we had unwrapped.

Head: He came back
with a much bigger vertebra.

Bloch: This is bigger.

Head: Seeing him holding this,
very excited, in his hand.

That is the world's largest snake, Jon.

I was absolutely surprised.

That's the largest snake I've ever seen.

That's got to be the largest
snake in the world, Jon.

If you would have told me that
there were snakes that big

in the fossil record, I probably
wouldn't have believed you.

Bloch:
That was impressive enough.

He said, Jon, look at
your office door.

And I looked over to the office door,

and he said, if that snake were
to come into your office,

it would have to squeeze
through the doorway

as it was slithering in.

And that was enough to set
the impression completely.

Narrator:
By the end of the call,

Jason head was convinced
Jon had found something special.

Head: Most of the other
fossil snakes we find

are kind of in the vicinity
of the largest estimates

of the biggest giant snakes today,

which has kind of suggested,
at least to me, previously,

that maybe that was roughly the
maximum size snakes could get,

either physiologically or ecologically.

I'm getting a flight ticket and
heading down there right now.

Bloch: Okay.

Narrator: At the Florida lab,

Jason's first line of investigation

is into the kind of snake this is.

Is it related to a type already known,

or something completely new?

With only vertebrae to go on,

this is a complex task
requiring an expert eye.

Head: In the case of snakes,

figuring out who's related to who

would be easy if we had complete skulls.

But most of the fossil record of snakes

consist of isolated backbones.

Narrator: But snake skulls
are extremely fragile

and hard to find.

So Jason has to begin a process

of comparing these isolated backbones

with a huge range of snakes
in his database,

both living and dead.

Head: In order to figure out
who this animal's related to

and who it was, what we need
to do is make comparisons

between subtle changes in the anatomy,

between this animal and
other living and fossil snakes.

Narrator: All snakes have
one thing in common...

They are a type of lizard
that lost their legs

as they developed elongated bodies.

They may look similar
to the untrained eye,

but their evolution is highly varied.

Somewhere about
100 million years ago or so,

snakes evolved this elongate, limbless,

or limb-reduced body plan.

And in that body plan or that body form,

they immediately started inhabiting

different environments.

They were burrowers, they were swimmers,

and the body itself,
the actual vertebral column

and the ribs and that muscular system,

that becomes the method of locomotion,

that becomes their
means of moving around,

that snakelike motion that you see.

It seems almost
counterintuitive

that an animal should lose its limbs.

And yet the snakes
are still with us today

and are actually one of the most
successful groups of vertebrates

on the planet.

Narrator: Over their 100 million
years, snakes have diversified.

Some families have developed
super-toxic venom

with specialized fangs, like
cobras, vipers and rattlesnakes.

Others don't use venom at all,

but kill by crushing the life
out of their prey...

The constrictors.

From his initial comparison
of the Cerrejon vertebra

with the backbones of modern snakes,

Jason soon concludes that it is
similar to boas and pythons,

both constrictors.

The group of snakes
that it belongs to

are absolutely not venomous.

They, of course, acquire their
prey in a very different way,

and that's the kind of iconic
constricting behavior

that everyone thinks about
when they think about boas

and pythons and anacondas
and things like that.

To advance
their investigation,

the scientists must enter

the extraordinary and
highly successful world

of the big constrictors.

How do they hunt, kill,
breed, and adapt?

There's one surprising place
to find out,

just 500 Miles from the lab.

Jon Bloch heads for
the Florida everglades,

now home to one of the biggest
snakes in the world.

It can grow to over 20 feet in length,

and it's not native to Florida.

It's the Burmese python.

Jon's guide is a local
reptile expert, Shawn Heflick.

Before they go hunting,
Jon shows Shawn the vertebra

from the giant snake from Cerrejon.

We've got a snake
for comparison.

Shawn Heflick:
Uh-oh, you got goodies?

Bloch: Yeah.

What we've got here is
the cast of the original bone.

This is one of the vertebra.

Heflick: Wait a minute, what?

Yeah.

So this is a vertebra,
so one piece of the backbone.

Heflick: Get out of here.

Wow.

That is impressive.

This is a modern-sized
whale vertebra.

That's insane.

Bloch: And this isn't even the
largest bone that we've found.

I'm almost speechless,

because that is truly
a monstrosity among snakes.

It's hard for me to conceive
an animal of that mass and size

having lived on this planet.

The snakes
in today's everglades

may be 60 million years away
from the lost world of Cerrejon,

but now, as then,
they're certainly thriving.

Seen a lot of pythons
in this area right here,

it's got everything they need...

A lot of cover, access to water,
a lot of prey.

Narrator: But there's
a curious twist.

The Burmese python belongs

in the rainforests of southeast Asia.

It shouldn't be here at all.

In 1992, hurricane Andrew hit Florida.

Among its casualties was
an animal warehouse

containing hundreds of Burmese pythons,

destined for the pet trade.

Around 900 escaped.

They flourished in
the hot, humid conditions,

devouring everything in their path.

Over the past 19 years,

the number of pythons on the loose

is thought to have risen to 10,000.

Shawn Heflick is licensed by the
state of Florida to catch them,

in an effort to keep
the population under control.

Nothing is safe from
these rampant pythons...

Birds, mammals, reptiles
are all easy victims.

Even the top predators, the
alligators, are potential prey.

It may be a long distant echo

of how Jon's giant snake
once terrorized Cerrejon.

There are other snakes here, too,

like the eastern diamondback,
a venomous rattlesnake.

Be aware, you're in eastern
diamondback territory as well.

Okay.

We've got some
saw grass here, so watch...

I see that.

...Watch your face
as you pile through.

See, there's a lot of
really good cover in here.

They're so hard to spot.

Narrator: Snakes are the snipers
of the animal world.

First, find a good place for an ambush.

Modern or ancient, small or giant,

every snake needs somewhere to hide.

Every once in a while
I hear a little scurrying,

but I'm assuming those are just rodents.

Yeah, a lot of rodents
in here,

all these rock piles and all this cover.

There could be a 16-foot Burm
right there,

unless it moves or you just
happen to, you know,

catch a little piece of it,

you'd never know it was there.

Sure.

It's a needle in the haystack.

Camouflage and concealment

are part of the snake's arsenal.

Their prey may move faster,

so they must catch it by the
speed of their initial strike.

Jon, look over here.

Yeah, that's python, no doubt.

Over there.

That's a good sized snake.

This is not the whole thing,
but it's definitely a snake.

That's got me excited now.

Oh, now you believe me
that there are pythons here.

They're here. Okay.

See if we can find a live one.

Alright.

Heflick: I see, there's
the fossil hunter in you,

you're still looking for...

Bloch: Yeah, this is the kind of
thing I'm used to looking for.

You're still looking
for the dead stuff.

I can appreciate that.

Like a modern snake,

the Cerrejon monster's forked
tongue is a crucial organ,

sensing the world around it.

The fork in the tongue makes
its surface area bigger

and more sensitive.

It may help snakes to detect
the direction of prey

and other items of interest,

all the while staying hidden
in the undergrowth.

Oh, something?

Like I say,

you'd almost have to step on it,
you know.

Something moved in there.

You hear something?

I did.

Heflick: Might be easier to find
a 58-million-year-old animal,

doesn't run from you, huh?

The search continues.

The everglades national park
is 2,300 square Miles

of land and water.

The Burmese pythons have penetrated

deep into these wetlands, by
swimming from island to island.

But the snake hunters' persistence

will shortly pay off.

Jon Bloch is about
to see first-hand

what constrictors are capable of.

Heflick: Oh, right there,
Jon, Jon, Jon.

Bloch: Oh, God,
look at that's huge.

That's a big snake.

So you're gonna grab it by the tail?

Heflick: Yeah, we'll walk
her back and, oh, yeah.

Uh-huh.

Not happy.

Now that's the difference between these.

This thing's strong.

That's the difference between
these in captivity

and these wild caught ones,
is not happy right now.

So the whole game on this,
so now she knows...

Oh, that's a bad area.

Narrator: Though the python
kills by constriction

and does not inject poison,

it still has a ferocious bite
to grab its prey.

That's a younger
Burmese python.

It'll be a second, she'll
realize you're back there, huh?

She wants to
go, go, go,

and she's being restrained.

Once the prey
is in range,

the snake launches itself
like a heat-seeking missile.

Oh, yeah.

There we go. Nice.

Okay, sweetie.

Okay.

Switch hands. Yeah.

Beautiful.

Heflick: She's not happy.
No, she's not.

Heflick: Not happy,
but if you can do me a favor

and grab that tail?

Yeah.

She's gonna musk.

No, keep it back,
keep it back, keep it back.

That's what they do
as a defense mechanism.

Narrator: The snake sees Jon
as a predator.

Its instinctive reaction

is to squirt the contents
of its bowels all over him.

Heflick: They're going to musk,
they're gonna, you know,

evacuate their bowels
on a would-be predator.

Okay.

Heflick: And that's enough
to get anybody to say,

I don't know if I want to
eat this thing or not.

But let's unwind her.

Okay.

Just here.

Yeah.

Oh, she's heavy.

She's powerful,
isn't she?

Yeah.

She also has recurved teeth.

Oh, did she get you?

Yeah, just one little
Nick and you see, you know,

the teeth are pretty sharp,
like hypodermic needles.

The ancient snake's
recurved teeth

lock on to its prey.

The more the prey struggles,
the deeper the teeth go.

Stephen: The bite is really
just to secure the prey.

So the snake is gonna obviously strike,

bite the prey item,

and literally get it secure
in its jaws and then constrict.

60 million years ago,
as today,

the constrictor throws
coils around its victim

and crushes it.

Constriction is unique to snakes.

Jon's getting his first view of it.

She's got a pretty good
lock on my arm.

Bloch: Yeah, I can see that.

We need to
get her in a bag,

I think my hand might be turning purple.

When you're
handling snakes,

sometimes they then start
constricting your arm.

And it's when they do that,
that you actually realize,

wow, these snakes are just
incredibly powerful,

a muscle machine, if you like.

A constrictor this size

can exert a pressure of
30 pounds per square inch.

On the human chest,

it's equivalent to being crushed
by a small car.

As snakes get bigger,

their muscles generate ever more force,

and they can throw more loops
around their prey.

Heflick: If I was a prey item,

she would constrict me until
she constricted me so much,

there was vasoconstriction
constriction, and my heart

would literally almost explode,

because, you know, it just stops it,

and there's so much pressure
on your circulatory system,

as well as suffocating you as well,

you know, the prey item gets suffocated.

Constriction is so effective

that snakes can take on
the largest prey.

In Cerrejon, 60 million years ago,

it would have been
a battle of the giants.

Magnificent.

I don't know how you don't
look at this and not go, -wow.-

No, it's gorgeous.

Truly a gorgeous animal.

Bloch: But this is gonna come
out of this habitat.

We have to remove it,
it doesn't belong here.

Well, that can be useful
for us, because...

Despite
Shawn's best efforts,

it's an ongoing battle to keep
the pythons in check.

The most effective control
so far has been cold winters.

Big snakes need heat to thrive

and are vulnerable to low temperatures,

a phenomenon that may become relevant

in explaining why the giant
snakes at Cerrejon died out.

Big female.

But for now, there are
more immediate questions.

The initial evidence suggests

the Cerrejon snake was
the biggest that's ever lived.

But precisely how big

and what type?

In the Florida lab, Jason head
is narrowing the options

by comparing the Cerrejon fossil

with vertebrae from living snakes.

The final choice comes down to a python

or a group of
so-call boid snakes,

that includes boas and anacondas.

If we compare the fossil

with the vertebra of this living python,

what we can see is that

they're actually very similar
to each other.

However, there is a key feature
of the fossil.

Specifically, these two holes

that we see on either side of
the vertebra right here,

that are not present in pythons.

Having eliminated pythons,

Jason knows what type of constrictor

the Cerrejon giant must have been.

It actually
shared characters

with boa constrictors,

suggesting that they're closely
related to each other,

despite being very different in size.

The Cerrejon snake
was a gigantic relative

of boas and anacondas,

snakes that are still alive
in South America today,

though a fraction of the size

of their 60-million-year-old
forebear.

Calculating the Cerrejon
monster's exact size

requires an ingenious and
painstaking set of calculations

from the vertebrae the team had
collected back in Cerrejon.

In order to tell
how large a snake is,

you have to know what part of
the body the bone is from

within the vertebral column.

And the reason for that

is because within the same exact
skeleton of a snake,

you can have very small ones
and very large ones,

depending on where you are
in the position.

The first question is

how to work out where
the fossil vertebra lay

in the giant snake's spinal column.

David Polly of Indiana
University in Bloomington

is drafted in to make
a mathematical model.

The first clue is the minute changes

in the shape of a snake's vertebrae,

which depend on where they're situated.

David Polly: One of
the things about snakes,

even though they look like
they're a long tube,

they do different things with their neck

and with their body and with their tail.

Sometimes they strike, and
sometimes they're slithering.

So they've got lots
of different muscles.

It is these muscles
that dictate the tiny differences

in each vertebra's shape and proportion.

As you go from
the head of the snake

to the tail of the snake,

you get different lengths
of these projections

and different proportions.

For his model,
David Polly first creates

a mathematical map of
the Cerrejon vertebra.

His ultimate aim is to work out

exactly where it fits
in the snake's body.

So what we're
looking at here

is a stylized representation of this.

This point here is this point,
this point is the top up here,

and these, this down here.

So this represents the shape
of this particular vertebra.

Then, the shape and gradient

of hundreds of vertebrae
in modern boid snakes

from every part of the body are
also entered into the model.

Finally, the Cerrejon vertebra
is matched against them.

What we did
mathematically

was we took this gradient
from one to the other

in all of the snakes

and found where it matched best

as you went from the front to the back.

We could then measure
the shape on this vertebra

and then with some degree of likelihood,

be able to place it within
some position in the body.

It's a fairly simple idea,

but it actually takes
quite a bit of work

and took us the greater part
of a year to do.

With the ancient fossil
embedded into the snake map,

it is now possible to reconstruct

the size of the snake.

In the courtyard of the Florida museum,

Jon Bloch and Jason head are
ready for the big revelation.

Bloch: Where would this go,
do you think, in the body?

So that specimen would be
just over halfway

between the head and the tail,

so just about here.

Okay.

The result is awe inspiring.

The longest modern snake,
the reticulated python,

measures 28 feet.

The biggest previous fossil
snake, Gigantophis... 33 feet.

The Cerrejon snake smashes the record.

48 feet long,

it is the longest snake
in world history.

That's a big snake.

This is a huge snake.

This is just the first
specimen from Cerrejon.

There could be even
longer snakes out there.

And further mysteries remain.

How did it live?
What did it eat?

What did it really look like?

Above all, how could it possibly
have grown so big?

It's time to name it.

To reflect its ancestry,
as well as its enormity,

it will be called Titanoboa,

a boa of Titanic proportions.

In honor of the Colombian mine
where it was found,

its full name...
Titanoboa Cerrejonensis.

With its credentials proved,
titanoboa can be launched,

a creature to make headlines
and capture the imagination

of the scientific, phobic
and expert across the world.

Stephen: Wow, you know,
this is an amazing animal.

It's just one of those things
that you know

you're not gonna have happen

that many times in your lifetime.

Finally, snakes are on the map.

Bloch: Many people's reaction is
just sort of that of horror.

There's a certain fear of snakes
that exists out there,

and I think for a lot of people

that's sort of the root
of the fascination.

Narrator: To fully
comprehend titanoboa,

it needs, somehow, to be seen.

Snakes are not just bones,

there's also flesh on those bones.

At Indiana university, Bloomington,

a snake is coming under
a highly expert knife.

Matt Rowe used to be a Sushi chef,

now his skills are unveiling
the complete snake.

The meat, a delicacy
in many exotic cuisines.

The skin, used for ladies'
handbags, belts and boots.

But the most striking thing
Matt can reveal

is how much larger a snake becomes

when its bones are fleshed out.

Matt Rowe: Alright.

So this is the vertebra inside
of the cross-section here.

It's a little bit difficult
to see at this point,

because they're relatively small

in comparison to the size
of the cross-section,

and you can see the centrum
of the vertebra here.

In our research, in
the dissections that we've done,

the size of the vertebra
in comparison to the snake

has always surprised me,

in the sense that
they are always much smaller

than I would think.

As you can see here,

a small vertebra does not
necessarily indicate

a small snake.

In some big living snakes,

the ribs are about five inches long.

Scaled up to the Cerrejon giant snake,

the ribs must have been
more like two feet long,

with a wall of muscle strong
enough to crush a rhinoceros.

To recreate the full glory of titanoboa,

a Canadian model maker, Kevin Hockley,

is drafted into the team.

He's commissioned to build
a life-size replica.

His previous life-size creations
include two animals

that also once seemed the stuff
of myth and fantasy,

but are monstrously
alive and well today...

A narwhal and a giant squid.

Titanoboa, though long dead,
will overwhelm even them.

It's a huge snake

and bigger than any living snake

and certainly bigger than any
snake that I've made to date.

And the other challenge was,

there's only a few actual
fossils of the bones,

so we're going by
a scientist's speculation

as to what it actually looked like.

Narrator: One key part
is missing...

A fossil of Titanoboa's skull.

Kevin is starting his model
from the tail end,

in the hope that Jason head and
his colleagues will find one.

Head: He's a biologically
realistic model.

Narrator: Only with
the head in place

will we know exactly
how titanoboa looked.

Head: And it gives you both
the biology and the fear factor,

the punch, that would
get people interested.

Back at Cerrejon, the
fossil hunters scour the mine

for the skull bones whose fragility

makes them so elusive and rare.

They know a headless snake

will always be a story without an end.

And other mysteries remain...

What did titanoboa eat?

How did it hunt and reproduce?

One place on today's earth
can provide some clues.

The flooded grasslands of
the Venezuelan llanos.

Here, the average temperature

is more than a sweltering 80 degrees.

Though this is not a rainforest,

the similarity of the animals
in these sultry wetlands

makes it almost a mini Cerrejon.

Turtles and caiman flourish,

and alongside them,

an animal with similar habits
to titanoboa,

the heaviest snake
in the modern world...

The green anaconda.

Jesus Rivas is the leading
authority on the anaconda.

He spent 20 years in these wetlands,

studying them close up
and what they like to eat,

like this turtle.

Jesus Rivas:
Wow, it's a monster!

Narrator: Titanoboa may have
been 10 times as heavy,

but Jesus believes the anaconda
gives the best possible insight

into its world.

Most boas live in trees,

an unlikely move for titanoboa.

So the anaconda, also one of
the boid group of snakes,

offers the best comparison.

Titanoboa is
an aquatic, tropical snake

that is very related to anaconda.

I can't think of a closer model
of standard snakes

to understand what titanoboa
was like than living anacondas.

Narrator: Jesus walks these
snake-infested swamplands barefoot,

so he can feel reptiles he can't see.

There are leeches, stingrays,
caiman, crocs, and piranhas

in his path.

But it's worth it

to get to grips with these
magnificent but shy creatures.

Suddenly, Jesus feels a familiar
slithery presence underfoot.

Got something for ya.

Okay, got you.

Jesus has found anacondas

measuring a massive 18 feet.

Just like
they're three and a half.

He knows that
dry land is their enemy.

Okay.

Something that
must have also been true

for titanoboa.

I don't think titanoboa,
being that large,

would have been very easy
to crawl through dry land,

maybe for very short time.

Narrator: Titanoboa weighed
as much as 20 people.

Movement on land was a constant
fight with gravity.

Like the anaconda, its friend was water,

where it becomes effectively
weightless and faster.

Today's snake habitat in Venezuela

reinforces the evidence
that Titanoboa's kingdom

was a rainforest water world.

And this is a very large,

either a slow-moving
river system,

or kind of a backwater of
a major river system.

So what we have is a big, wet
landscape full of water

with a lot of aquatic snakes in it.

Narrator: On land, Titanoboa's
weight is suffocating it.

Sliding into the water,
it is coming home.

In this ideal environment,

it becomes the ruling predator,

a lurking killer.

Despite their lack of legs or fins,

snakes are natural swimmers,

faster than humans.

The secret is their flexible spines.

They turn themselves
into a fluid "s" shape,

using their whole body
to carve through the water.

The anacondas of the Venezuelan llanos

are the nearest living echo
of the long lost snake

and the world it dominated.

And to get even closer to
their extraordinary discovery,

the scientists must encounter
the anaconda face to face.

But they won't give up
their secrets without a fight.

Jon Bloch and Jason head,

experts in the prehistoric world,

land in the Venezuelan llanos,
close to the equator.

It's oppressively hot and humid.

Hell for humans,

paradise for the biggest snakes
on today's earth.

Jon and Jason have come
in search of the green anaconda,

which thrives in this steaming swamp.

The anaconda's lifestyle is
the closest they can find

to the giant snake, titanoboa,

which flourished in Colombia
60 million years ago

in the lost world of Cerrejon.

Their guide is Jesus Rivas,

the world's leading expert
on the green anaconda.

He shows the new arrivals
that the best way to find one

is to feel for it with bare feet.

Alarmingly, he can also tell them

that anacondas can be lethal,
even for humans.

Rivas: An anaconda is potentially
a danger for a person

because of the sheer size.

They're generalist predators.

As long as capacity of killing a person,

definitely can kill a person.

Narrator: Anaconda mainly hunt
in water,

where they're hardest to spot.

Just like titanoboa,
lurking beneath the surface,

waiting for unsuspecting prey
to pass by.

Dead still, heart, a silent murmur,

holding its breath for up to 45 minutes.

Waiting for the perfect prey

until the moment comes.

Oh, you got tagged.

It's all right.

He came out of nowhere,

it was like the monster from the deep.

Jon has suddenly
become the target.

Bad girl.

Let it bleed, let it bleed.

It hurt,
there's no doubt it hurt,

and it's bleeding a lot.

Does it hurt a lot?

We have band aids, so.

Is that normal
to puff up like that?

No.

Probably need
to put something over it.

Jon will later find out

the anaconda has left two
vicious teeth buried in his leg.

It saw him either as
potential prey or as a threat.

Welcome to the club!

Oh, thank you.

Narrator: To Jesus, it's part of
everyday life in snake land.

The anaconda that bit Jon
was relatively small fry.

Even the largest anaconda here
would be dwarfed by titanoboa.

Oh, my God, look.

But whatever
the difference in size,

they eat the same way.

Look how skinny he becomes.

That looks like a Galapagos,
like a turtle.

So there's an example of
an anaconda with a turtle in it,

you think?

That's right.

That is
pretty interesting,

so sideneck turtles,
just like we have in Cerrejon.

The anaconda
has swallowed a meal

wider than its own body.

Oh, look at that.

Her tail looks fine.

Okay.

Not a catcher,
sorry, girl.

Look at this, look at the piece,
the chunk missing over here.

Come on here, come on here,
look at the chunk of flesh.

Narrator: Jesus spots a wound
on the anaconda's side.

It was inflicted by the prey.

Maybe it's a baby Capybara.

It's expensive for a snake
to take a meal.

Yeah.

On every hunt,
a snake risks its life.

It's kill or be killed.

Rivas: Okay, let's move around,
let's move away,

leave her address her meal,
we don't want her to lose it.

The anaconda wants
some privacy and safety

to digest its catch.

These snakes don't stop at turtles.

They also prey here on caiman,
a type of crocodile.

Snakes have always been willing
to take on the largest prey,

both now and 60 million years ago.

Is any animal safe from titanoboa

in Cerrejon's lost world?

Even the half ton blunt-nosed
crocodile is at risk...

...unable to escape the giant
snake's recurved teeth.

Crushed by coils of muscle,

delivering 400 pounds
per square inch of pressure.

Each time the crocodile's chest moves,

titanoboa tightens its grip.

Inducing unconsciousness,

then cutting off its victim's blood...

...until death.

There's movement in the water.

Rivas:
That's what we're here for.

What do you have?

Oh!

Narrator: This anaconda's
big enough to crush a human.

Woo!

She wants to give me a kiss,
look at that.

Or is it Jon you like?

Four human adults struggle

to resist the massive, twisting
force of the snake's muscles.

She is...

Strong.

Holding it
behind the head

is the only way to make it safe...

Why won't you hold his ears?

...As head movement
controls the body's twisting.

This snake is big, powerful and hungry.

Let me do that.
Bloch: I've got it.

Let me hold the first part.

This girl, this size
will feed on anything.

Small crocs, turtles, deer,
small children, anything.

Bloch: So this is probably
about the size

of a juvenile titanoboa,
maybe about a year old?

How long do you reckon
this vertebrates are?

Head: The vertebrae
on this animal?

Yeah.

Be about that wide.

Snakes keep growing
throughout their lives.

The bigger ones are the longest
lived and the most successful.

No, no, no,
titanoboa is like that.

Given the size
of this anaconda,

it seems almost unbelievable

that it's nothing
compared with titanoboa.

No, Titanoboa's probably
60, 70 centimeters wide.

This snake looks like
she's got a diameter

of about nine, maybe 10
centimeters at the widest point,

which is one-fifth
to one-seventh

the width of titanoboa.

Rivas: This is a very skinny
snake for her size.

If she were nice and plump,

she would be probably 10 inches across.

Head: Okay.

She probably gave birth
last year,

for how skinny she is.

And she probably is aiming for
a Capybara or a good caiman

or something to make up
for the energy lost.

This is as close
as the scientists can get

in the living snake world of today

to the lost world of titanoboa.

Okay.

Let's go home.

The habitat and plants
may be different,

and this is not a rainforest.

But the similarities in the mix
of animals are striking.

Head: If you think about
this ecosystem,

how many snakes we found just today

and how many caiman we've seen
and how many turtles.

Where we're standing right now,
that's basically Cerrejon.

Bloch: It's really
an incredible experience

for me to be able to see
this habitat like this.

At Cerrejon, we find this big
layer with, you know,

all of these skeletons of snakes
closely spaced,

and you think, well,
how could an ecosystem sustain

that many snakes in such a small place?

And then here we're finding
snakes all over the place,

together, giant, huge snakes.

The team finds
five anacondas in just one day.

Jesus has counted 2,000
of these snakes here.

Watch your hands.

Cerrejon would
probably have been the same.

Not just one or two titanoboa,

but thousands.

Go for it.

There you go.

Beautiful, look at that.

Narrator: As the trip ends,

Jon Bloch turns snake catcher
for the first time.

Gorgeous snake.

Your first worry is
to protect the head.

Their muscle cladded,
all the things protection,

but the head is very sensitive.

So when they feel in danger,

they'll wrap their head around anything.

That's what she was trying to do

to protect her head between her loops,

that's what tangles you up.

Bloch: Got it.

She's got me around the neck.

Do you want to help me there, Jason?

Thank you.

You're a good friend.

Oh, that's fantastic,
look at that.

Jon and Jason's work,
both in the lab and the field,

is fed back to their model maker
Kevin Hockley

thousands of Miles away in Canada.

But to complete his recreation
of titanoboa,

he urgently needs a skull.

The team of scientists investigating

the giant prehistoric snake, titanoboa,

return to the coalmine
at Cerrejon in Colombia,

the place they first discovered
fossils of its vertebrae.

They're in a race against time

to find the one missing piece
in their Jigsaw puzzle,

a remnant of Titanoboa's skull.

Soon, the diggers will penetrate
beneath the seam of coal

that revealed the lost world
of 60 million years ago.

The operations
at the mine

will eventually destroy
this hill completely

and probably this will be
our last trip here,

on the LA puente pit
that's been so good to us

in terms of collecting.

This is the only place in the world

that we've ever, in fact,
found titanoboa, for example.

The mine has not just
produced titanoboa,

it has revealed a dazzling
variety of giant animals.

One of the most remarkable
is the freshwater turtle,

discovered by Colombian
scientist Edwin Cadena.

He could hardly believe his eyes

when he began scraping away
at the first fossil.

So I start working
with this screwdriver,

carefully removing all the sediment

that was covering this specimen.

And wow, it was
a really, really nice moment

for me to see this almost
two-meters-long turtle

coming at the surface.

This is the head of the turtle
and this is the shell,

the carapace and the plastron
of the turtle.

It was a surprise for me.

The final measurement
turns out to be

an astonishing eight feet,
as big as a dinner table.

The lost water world
contains strange species,

like the lungfish, capable of
breathing in surface air.

It grew as big as a man.

And there were massive crocodiles.

So we have
three different types

of crocodile relatives from Colombia,

we have a small-bodied form
with a relatively narrow snout,

good for small prey items.

Medium sized,
long-snouted form here,

this lower jaw is very good for
catching slippery, quick fish.

Here is
a blunt-snouted crocodile

with a really short snout,

which is perfectly adapted
for really tough foods.

So something like a turtle shell

that needs a lot of force
in order to deal with that.

When you have your upper
and your lower jaws

coming together like this,

you have to have a really strong tooth

in order to withstand that pressure.

And these blunt, round teeth
are perfectly adapted

for taking on tough foods
like turtle shells.

Pieced together, the
crocodile measures 15 feet long.

The team has complete crocodiles
and complete turtles.

What they're desperate for
is a complete titanoboa.

But there's still no skull.

Finding a skull remnant
is almost impossible.

They're fragile shards
that have disintegrated

over the millions of years.

To give the team
the best possible chance,

Jason head, their expert
in extinct snakes,

makes his first visit to Cerrejon.

Head: Now, of course, we don't
really have a lot of skulls

for the fossil record of snakes,
'cause they're very light,

and they break apart
after the animal has died.

Even though
they haven't found a skull,

each time they return to the mine,

the team does discover more and
more evidence of titanoboa.

One find is extraordinarily intact.

This is a really
incredible specimen.

This snake, when it died,

was roughly angled so that the
front of the animal was here,

probably coming around

and going all the way around

and then coming back
toward the tail here.

Bloch: How big do you think
this snake was, about?

We're probably
looking at a skull,

based on the relationship

between skull size to body length

in living boas and pythons,

of about this long from
the tip of the snout

to the back of the skull.

That's the size of
a lot of the crocodiles

we get out of here.

That's right.

This is a big animal,

this is the largest animal
in the ecosystem.

Despite this great
spread of ribs and vertebrae,

no skull is found.

Finally back here...

But the size of this
fossil snake raises the question

of why some titanoboa seem to be
so much bigger than others.

The answer to that lies here
in the Venezuelan llanos.

Jesus Rivas has stumbled on something

that's rare for humans
to catch sight of.

Right here,
this is a small anaconda,

it's a male-sized anaconda.

And it's wrapped around something.

At least one male, could be two,
but hard to tell for now.

And the female's body is
definitely in that direction.

So then I dig it out.

Yeah, that is the female's body
for sure.

And that is a third.

Don't bite me, please.

This is a mating ball,

several male anacondas
wrapped around a female.

The males are competing
to mate with her.

Only one will succeed.

He's leaving.

Two boys.

Second boy is here.

There's a third boy.

Not surprisingly,

the male anacondas are angry
at being pulled off the female.

Oh, there you go.

Grab it, grab you, it doesn't matter.

She was tagged.

Oh, beautiful, look.

I need to see the head,
which is somewhere here.

Now she's backing up.

Coochie, coochie, coochie.

Okay, got you.

Oh, she's a big one! Woo!

This anaconda
is 15 feet long,

a huge snake in today's world.

Okay.

The reason for
the snake's size is simple.

She's female.

She had four males with her.

You can see the difference in size,

how much smaller the males are.

Based on
living anacondas,

it is likely that
in the lost world of Cerrejon,

the female titanoboa is also
bigger and deadlier

than the male.

Males avoid females most of
the year for very good reason.

They're in danger of
being eaten by them.

But in the mating season,

chemical signals in the water
show it's safe to approach.

And then, the fight is among the males.

The wrestling can last for weeks,

as the males try to
push each other aside.

Until, finally, one manages to mate.

The pregnant female breaks off,

her young now growing inside her.

She's stored enough food in her body

to survive the seven months
of pregnancy.

She won't eat again
until she's given birth.

In the autopsy lab at
Indiana university, Bloomington,

grad student Beth Reinke shows
the huge number of eggs

a female python carries.

Beth Reinke: These are all eggs.

I see 29, 30 right now, 31, 32.

In the female titanoboa,

there may be as many as 100 offspring.

After seven months,
she's ready to give birth.

Head: The baby snakes are in
a little, tiny shell membrane,

they punch through that,

and then they actually leave the mother,

in a way that's very similar to
modern birth in most mammals.

Titanoboa is likely
to give birth in the water,

but may sometimes do so on land.

The babies are already over
three feet long at birth,

as big as some modern snake adults.

Their size will be
their only protection.

Once the babies hatch,

they're pretty good in terms
of taking care of themselves.

They're fully functional,
they're able to hunt,

they're able to move around.

All their senses are fully developed.

So they're pretty good to go.

Female Titanoboas
do not mother their children.

The only attention they pay them

is to eat any that don't survive birth.

After abandoning the newborns,

the mother titanoboa heads off
in search of prey

to relieve a hunger grown ferocious

from seven months without food.

The giant fossil at Cerrejon
could be one of those females,

but the skull still
eludes the searchers.

Head: If we are gonna find one,
it should be over here.

Maybe we should think about
searching off in this way,

excavating more of the hill.

All we can do is look.

That's right, let's do it.

Looking for fossils
can be a little bit

like searching for
a needle in a haystack.

If there's going to be a skull,

it should be over here somewhere.

Finally,
with time running out

and the ever present threat

of the mine's need to resume digging,

a Colombian grad student strikes gold.

Not one, but three skull bones.

This is
a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,

really, this is just amazing.

For somebody who has
gone around the world

and picked up vertebrae,

to actually pick up pieces of the skull

is an absolutely unique and
unbelievable experience,

it's almost indescribable.

Those three bones include
parts of the lower jaw,

and you can see right here,

these are the tooth positions
where teeth would have been

when the animal was alive.

And this is actually
a bone of the jaw joint.

This is the back of the skull,

and right here is where the lower jaw

actually connects with the upper jaw.

So up here on us.

From these three bones,

we can make inferences about
its ecology, where it lived,

what it ate, how it behaved,
how it reproduced,

all of the aspects of its life history.

The precious skull
fragments are carefully packed up

and flown back to the museum
for analysis.

They are the clue to exactly
how and what titanoboa ate.

Turn that around.

This piece of the jaw of titanoboa

corresponds to that part of
the jaw in a living snake.

Bloch: Wow, look at that,
yeah, right.

Jon and Jason
fit the bone fragments

to positions on the skull.

Titanoboa's head begins to take shape.

Great, so that would be...

Boy, look at that.

So this jaw would have been,

there would have been
a little bit more on the front.

The skull of this animal
would be about that long.

Fantastic, and we have
some other pieces here, too.

Even more important

than the huge size of titanoboa's head,

is how wide it can open its mouth.

Its gape determines what it can eat.

They have these
very long lower jaws,

with the jaw joint suspended far
behind the back of the skull.

So when they open their mouths,
this jaw swings down

and gives them a very,
very, very wide gape.

Okay.

And then it would have swung,

basically, at the back of the jaw.

Exactly.

Bloch: It would have swung down.
Boy, look at that.

So how big?

It would have had a gape,
probably about like that.

At least, right?

Yeah.
Bloch: Yeah.

Now also the lower jaws
are actually separate,

so that when the lower jaws
open, when this swings down,

the lower jaws will actually spread

wide apart from each other.

So titanoboa could have
had a gape that wide.

Even modern snakes display
appetites that defy belief.

In the everglades,
a large python once swallowed

an alligator as big as itself.

It didn't end well for either of them.

The snake exploded.

But prey like that
was easy meat for titanoboa.

In ancient Cerrejon,
there were monster meals

for a monster appetite.

The biggest lungfish, at 10 feet long,

a nice little entree.

The crocodiles,
15 feet long and powerful.

Satisfying as the main course.

Perhaps only one animal
would have been too big

for even titanoboa to consume...

The giant adult turtle.

They've got
really thick shells,

and that means a lot of bone
for a snake to get, digest.

So it's really not a good idea
for a snake to get something

that is gonna stay in
your stomach for so long,

because it has so much bone on it.

So, for the largest turtles at Cerrejon,

they had so many chances to survive,

because the snakes probably
preferred to eat crocodiles

or other small animals.

Titanoboa's ability
to swallow prey

so much bulkier than itself
is extraordinary,

and its solution,
the same as for all snakes.

Once they're sort of
sensing that the prey's dead,

and they sort of figure out
where the head of the prey is,

and then they start to eat the prey.

Snakes, obviously, are not like people.

They don't have hands

that they can shovel food
down their throat.

They've got a left and a right jawbone.

So that degree of flexibility

enables them to eat much larger prey.

So they can almost walk their
jawbones across their prey.

And if you imagine a combination
of muscle contractions,