Scientists working in the Amazon rainforest have discovered a new species of snake. The giant anaconda may be the largest known snake species.
A research team from the University of Queensland traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon to search for what is rumored to be the world's largest snake species, the previously undocumented northern green anaconda (Eunectes akaima).
“These amazing creatures are of incredible size. One of the female anacondas we encountered was 6.3 meters long,” University of Queensland biologist Professor Brian Fry, who led the team, said in a statement.
The team also said they had also heard of a 7.5-metre-long, 500-kg python that appeared in the area.
Currently, the green anaconda is the heaviest snake in the world, according to the British Museum of Natural History. The heaviest individual recorded weighed 227 kilograms, and was 8.43 meters long and 1.11 meters wide.
Experts studying the creatures discovered that the newly identified northern green anaconda separated from the southern green anaconda nearly 10 million years ago, and that they differ genetically by a whopping 5.5 percent. By comparison, Fry added, humans differ from chimpanzees by only 2 percent – the scientist was quoted as saying CNN.
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