Giant boid snake from the Palaeocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures

The discovery of the world's largest snake has important implications for our understanding of the evolution of global climate. The snake, a relative of the boa constrictor, was 13 metres long and would have weighed more than a tonne. It lived in tropical South America around 60 million years ago. A snake this size would have required mean annual temperatures between 30–34 °C, higher than the tropics today.