As much as I'd LOVE to see a 130 foot long snake that's more than 6 feet wide, I have to call shenanigans on this story. Or perhaps gross
exaggeration would be more fitting.
40
meters ? Wild goose chase. To put it in perspective, the 10 inch eye would be as big as a salad plate. a 2 meter wide body would be wide
enough to swallow a grown man
sideways. Wider than your car. Think more like the belly of a fully grown elephant. And 40 meters long equates
to the snake clamping it's mouth on the head of the Christ The Redeemer statue in Brazil and dangling down with it's tail touching the ground. (and
scaring all the tourists)
Such a find is not impossible in the animal kingdom; but it existing and *not* being found, despite it's massive size? Unlikely. All these stories,
yet no one has even so much as a tooth from one of the beasties? It's human nature to keep nifty things like giant snake teeth or bones.
While searching the web for references to link to (you can look up the Rio statue yourself. It's everywhere) I found a site about anacondas that
includes finding
fossil evidence of a significantly larger snake. Here be linkage:
Biggest Snake re: Extreme Science
And the pertinent excerpt from the article:
The Biggest Snake to Have Ever Lived If you think that an anaconda big enough to swallow a capybara
or tapir whole is big, you should see the size of the giant snake scientists discovered in a coal mine in Columbia, South America in 2008. Fossils of
an enormous snake were discovered in an open coal mine in the Amazon rainforest. Paleontologists estimated the length of the snake to be 43 feet long
and estimated to weigh 2,500 pounds! Based on their findings, the scientists who identified this new species of snake said it was large enough to prey
on crocodiles. Since snakes are cold-blooded, the average temperature of the Amazon had to have been 6 to 8 degrees warmer to support a snake that
enormous.
I don't know why the Amazon would have to be warmer to support a larger snake. I've had a few snakes as pets, bigger doesn't mean they need more
heat. The needs vary from species to species. As an example, garter snakes can get along just fine without so much as a heat pad, just stick their
tank in a "warm" corner of your house. Around 82 degrees F is plenty. My garter snake ate worms and fish. Juvenile king snakes the same size as an
adult garter snake need more heat to properly digest the mice they eat. Ball pythons need even more heat. So don't always believe what you read.
Especially if it's on a site saying National Geographic is "interested" but they're still asking for your personal donations.
And thank you, OP for introducing me to new words for crypto- critters. I love learning new things!