Around 50 to 60 million years ago, a giant monster snake roamed the Earth in the swampy jungles of South America and began a reign of terror. This monster snake weighs more than a ton and measures about 42.5 feet (13 meters) in length, which is twice as long as a modern anaconda or python. Some scientists even claim that it could have reached a length of 50 feet.
Its fossils were first described in 2009, five years after it was excavated, in which researchers dubbed it Titanoboa cerrejonensis. Today, it has become an object of fascination by many people in which it was even sensationally advertised by Smithsonian Channel in their program titled Titanoboa: Monster Snake that aired on April 1, 2012. A life-size recreation of the snake is featured in the institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
But what really caught the attention of many people was the photograph of the purported Titanoboa skeleton taken in April 2015 in a museum in Australia.
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 23: General view of a replica of the prehistoric Titanoboa, the largest snake to ever live, on display at Grand Central Terminal on March 23, 2012, in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Titanoboa Skeleton Replica
In 2012, a sculpture by the Chinese-French artist Huang Yong Ping was commissioned and acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation in Brisbane, Australia. This sculpture was the replica of a skeleton of the Titanoboa, which Huang called Ressort. It is a French word that means spring.
'Ressort'(2012)53 metre(173 ft)by Huang Yong Ping #art #contemporaryart #artwork #aluminum #arts #artlover #artgallery #science #artlovers #giant #silver #snake #snakes #animallover #animallovers #artsandcrafts #design #designer #designers #artist #artists #sculpture #statues pic.twitter.com/sIn5V7v9W3
— Ben Erhard Art (@benerhardart) April 9, 2018
According to an article about Huang Yong Ping's Ressort 2012, the gigantic aluminum snake skeleton spirals 173 feet (53 meters) across the Watermall. It is a fitting centerpiece for APT7, not only because it symbolizes one of the leading figures in Chinese contemporary art but also because it represents many of APT's and the Gallery's ideals, with an emphasis on cross-cultural dialogue.
Huang has been living in Paris, France, since 1989 and has learned so much about Western art. Huang's Ressort 2012 embodies the intertwined Chinese and Western art, overlaid with references to the locality the work is shown.
The coiled skeleton of the monster snake could be traditionally associated with water, knowledge, and wisdom in Chinese mythology. On the other hand, it can also be seen as the snake or dragon, which are key figures in other cultures that appear in the Garden of Eden in the Bible, or as Naga in Southeast Asia, or Beowulf's and Saint George's foe in Anglo-Saxon mythology, or as the Rainbow Serpent as depicted by the Australian Aboriginal culture.
No matter which culture it may have represented, the monster snake alternatively symbolizes fear, creation, desire, deception, and good luck.
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Largest Known Snake in the World
According to Britannica, Titanoboa is considered to be the largest snake in the world, even bigger than its closest relative, the anaconda and boa. It was first described in 2009, after five years since it was unearthed from the rocks exposed at the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia, at the western part of the Lake Maracaibo's mouth.
They were able to find at least 30 individuals, of which the majority were from adult Titanoboa, but there are also some juveniles found. Most of the fossils were made up of ordinary snake fossils, but they estimated that there are perhaps over 250 vertebrae they discovered.
Titanoboa most likely spent much of its time in the water, as revealed by the sedimentary structure of the region's rock and the way it was preserved. similarly, a modern anaconda spends its time in or near the water where it could hide amid the vegetation in the shallows and ambush its prey. It may have been that, like modern anacondas, the size of Titanoboa would have made a living on land awkward or impossible.
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