Science has validated this scene from Milius's Conan. Titanoboa cerrejonensis is the largest snake every discovered at up to 50 feet long, 3 feet in diameter at the thickest part of its body, and weighing in at 2500 pounds. The giant constrictor in the 2nd Edition Monster Manual would be puny in comparison at a mere 30 feet in length--though that would be about the size of Gigantophis, the second largest snake ever discovered
Because the size of anything becomes more relatable when compared to a city bus, here you go:
Titanoboa slithered through the Paleocene, around 58-60 million years ago, but records from that period are spotty at best. There were probably a few around in ancient Atlantis or Lemuria, or some other forgotten continent.
The silhouette in the city bus pic suggests the creature exhibited an intriguing form of locomotion...
ReplyDeleteBut I do wonder - how far is the snake from being able to fly?
Hmmm...Artistic license or some horrific insight from racial memory? I know which answer Robert E. Howard would favor.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia tells me that Quetzalcoutlus, the largest flying thing known, was a paltry 500 pounds at best, so wings on titanoboa might not have done much. Of course, David Carradine might beg to differ.
Nice Q reference, Trey! I turned that movie into a Call of Cthulhu adventure one night when I was low on ideas. Ultimately, the players failed to prevent the summoning of Quetzalcoatl into NYC (I backed the story up a bit and had a sorcerer conducting ritual sacrifices to summon the beast) and were consumed by it, in what was then revealed to be a shared hallucination -- along with everything else in the campaign past the midway point of the first session!
ReplyDeleteNow I want to watch Q: The Winged Serpent again.
Very cool. The city bus graphic is super.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap! A human would be turned to mushy goo by a hug from that baby.
ReplyDeleteWhen they find the rust monsters and beholders, I'll really freak out.
ReplyDeleteSweet. I love it when life imitates art. First came Utahraptor, validating the greatly over-sized Velociraptors of Jurassic Park and now Titanoboa. Bring on the monsters, I say!
ReplyDelete@Sean Robson: bracing for Kong.
ReplyDeleteWhat's unclear in that diagram is whether the snake is driving the bus, or is merely a passenger.
ReplyDeleteSnakes on a bus!
ReplyDelete@Chris - Yeah, Gigantopithecus is really just a Mighty Joe Young.
Hahahaha. You made me laugh out loud with that whole bus thing. Very funny. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a groovy weekend. I'm working prep all weekend but only have four days left of my long-ass week.
Woohoo.
Cheers and boogie boogie.
Don't prep too hard. :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy what of the weekend you can.
John Voight and Ice Cube could take 'im, methinks.
ReplyDelete