Gigantophis
{{Short description|Extinct genus of snakes}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Gigantophis
| fossil_range = Priabonian, {{Fossil range|37|35}}
| image = Gigantophis UMMNH.jpg
| image_caption = Cast of vertebrae, University of Michigan Museum of Natural History
| genus = Gigantophis
| authority = C. W. Andrews, 1901
}}
Gigantophis is an extinct genus of giant snake containing a single species, G. garstini. Before the Paleocene constrictor genus Titanoboa was described from Colombia in 2009, G. garstini was regarded as the largest snake ever recorded. It lived about 40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene Period, in the Paratethys Sea, within the northern Sahara, where Egypt and Algeria are now located.
Description
= Size =
File:Size comparison of largest snakes.jpg
Jason Head, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, has compared fossil Gigantophis garstini vertebrae to those of the largest modern snakes, and concluded that the extinct snake could grow from {{convert|9.3|to|10.7|m|ft|1|abbr=on}} in length. If {{convert|10.7|m|ft|1|abbr=on}}, it would have been more than 10% longer than its largest living relatives.{{cite journal |last1=Head |first1=J. |last2=Polly |first2=D. |year=2004 |title=They might be giants: morphometric methods for reconstructing body size in the world's largest snakes |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=24 |issue=Supp. 3 |pages=68A–69A |doi=10.1080/02724634.2004.10010643 |s2cid=220415208 }}{{cite news |title=A giant among snakes |work=New Scientist |issue=2473 |date=10 November 2004 |page=17 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18424732-500-a-giant-among-snakes/ }}
Later estimates, based on allometric equations scaled from the articular processes of tail vertebrae referred to Gigantophis garstini, revised the length of Gigantophis garstini to {{convert|6.9|±|0.3|m}}.{{cite journal | last1 = Rio | first1 = J.P | last2 = Mannion | first2 = P.D. | title = The osteology of the giant snake Gigantophis garstini from the upper Eocene of North Africa and its bearing on the phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of Madtsoiidae | date = 2017 | journal = Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology | volume = 37 | issue = 4 | pages = e1347179 | doi = 10.1080/02724634.2017.1347179 | s2cid = 90335531 | url = http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10068314/1/The%20osteology%20of%20the%20giant%20snake%20Gigantophis%20garstini%20from%20the%20upper%20Eocene%20of%20North%20Africa%20and%20its%20bearing%20on%20the%20phylogenetic%20relationships%20and.pdf | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2017JVPal..37E7179R }}
Discovery
The species is known only from a small number of fossils, mostly vertebrae.
Its discovery was published in 1901 by paleontologist Charles William Andrews, who described it, estimated its length to be about 30 feet, and named it garstini in honor of Sir William Garstin, KCMG, the Under Secretary of State for Public Works in Egypt.{{cite journal |last1=Andrews |first1=Chas. W. |title=II.—Preliminary Note on some Recently Discovered Extinct Vertebrates from Egypt. (Part II.) |journal=Geological Magazine |date=October 1901 |volume=8 |issue=10 |pages=436–444 |doi=10.1017/S0016756800179750 |bibcode=1901GeoM....8..436A |s2cid=86545487 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1428610 }}
In 2013, vertebrae collected in Pakistan were found to be similar to Gigantophis vertebrae collected in Egypt, but their exact affinities are uncertain.
Classification
Gigantophis garstini is classified as a member of the extinct family Madtsoiidae.
References
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{{Portal|Paleontology}}
{{Fossil snakes}}
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Category:Eocene reptiles of Africa
Category:Fossil taxa described in 1901
Category:Taxa named by Charles William Andrews
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