James Stewart
speaker
4,486 appearances
22 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard 4d ago
James Stewart’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Astrum Space · The Biggest Snake to Ever Stalk the Earth | Titanoboa | Astrum Earth · 12 May 2026
podcast
For a snake to grow this big, those hot, humid temperatures would need to be supersized almost as much as the snake itself.
The team estimated that to grow to this size, Titanoboa must have lived in an extremely warm climate, a far warmer ambient average than we see today, with year-round temperatures between 30 and 34 degrees Celsius with no let-up.
the Paleocene tropics were a scorching, sweaty sauna.
The same concept applies to other reptiles too, explaining the turtle shells the size of snooker tables and humongous crocs, the very things Titanoboa would eat for breakfast.
Remember those fossilized leaves we talked about earlier on?
Well, they backed this theory up too.
Studies of carbon isotopes and leaf pores from those samples indicated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were about 50% higher than they are today, likely driving those high land temperatures.
So what if I told you that a 60 million year old snake the size of a bus lurking in a relentless swampy jungle could actually impact us here on Earth today?
You see, these findings help scientists understand how ecosystems respond to warming.
Rising greenhouse gases are currently heating the planet, and extreme temperatures can cause plant and animal die-offs.
We've seen that already, sadly, in some parts of the world.
Plants, for example, may eventually reach a point where they can no longer photosynthesize effectively, and they begin to die.
Yet during Titanoboa's time, the region supported a lush, highly productive forest.
So how can both things be true?
What this suggests is that there are some ecosystems that can thrive in very warm conditions if...
they have enough time to adapt.
Because the plants and ecosystems in this region have already coped with those really high levels of CO2, it might mean that those plants and animals already have the genetic ability to cope with global warming.
And that raises a big question.
Could, therefore, Titanoboa return as our planet continues to warm?
The news is either terrifying or exciting, depending on your view, because Dr. Jaramillo, the guy that started this whole thing off, says there's a chance.
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