Bluff Downs giant python[]
The Bluff Downs giant python (Liasis dubudingala) is an extinct species of snake from Queensland, Australia, that lived during the Early Pliocene.[1]
| Bluff Downs giant python Temporal range: Early Pliocene | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Pythonidae |
| Genus: | Liasis |
| Species: | L. dubudingala |
| Binomial name | |
| Liasis dubudingala Scanlon and Mackness, 2002 | |
The Bluff Downs giant python hunted mammals, birds and reptiles in the woodlands and vine thickets bordering Australian watercourses during Pliocene times. Its nearest living relative is the olive python (Liasis olivacea).
Bluff Downs giant python by HodariNundu
Size[]
The Bluff Downs giant python is estimated to have grown to 10 m (33 ft), making it at least a metre longer than the world's two longest snakes - the anaconda of South America and the reticulated python of Asia.
Fossils[]
Fossilised vertebrae, teeth and rib fragments of the Bluff Downs python were found in 1992 at Bluff Downs in northeastern Queensland.
References[]
- Wikipedia
- Australian Museum ( website )
- Cogger, H. G., 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia (Sixth Edition). Reed New Holland, Sydney, 808 pp.
- Scanlon, J. D. and Mackness, B. S., 2001. A new giant python from the Pliocene Bluff Downs Local fauna of northeastern Queensland. Alcheringa 25, 424-432
Interesting stuff[]
Trivia: It is the largest Australian snake known.
Identification[]
Liasis species are pythons, large, bulky, slow-moving constrictors in the family Boidae. The bones of the skull and lower jaw are highly kinetic (moveable) in order to swallow large prey, as in most snakes, and the skin is extensible (elastic). Liasis species differ from other snakes in having teeth on the premaxilla (a bone at the front of the snout), large, symmetrical shields (scutes) on the head, and pits in some scales along the side of the face.
Liasis dubudingala is known only from isolated vertebrae, and it is assigned to the genus Liasis on the basis of overall similarity and possession of unusually high neural spines, as in Liasis olivaceus (the Olive Python) andLiasis mackloti (the Water Python). These may give us some clue to its lifestyle: the high neural spines may indicate that Liasis dubudingala wsas arboreal (tree-dwelling).
Distribution[]
Liasis dubudingala is known only from the Allingham Formation, Bluff Downs Station, northeastern Queensland. Living species of Liasis are found in Australia, New Guinea and in some parts of Indonesia.
Habitat[]
The Bluff Downs region during the Pliocene was an extensive wetlands bordered by patches of closed forest, perhaps like the present-day Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.
Feeding and Diet[]
Like other pythons, Liasis dubudingala was a non-venomous constrictor that killed by wrapping its coils around the unlucky prey and squeezing until suffocation occurred. It probably ate mammals, birds and other vertebrates, as the living Olive Python does (the specific name, dubudingala, comes from the Aboriginal Gugu-Yalanji dubu, or 'ghost', and dingal ,'to squeeze'). If it were at least partly arboreal, Liasis dubudingala may have a wide range of prey that would have included birds and tree-dwelling mammals as well as ground-dwelling animals (perhaps even juvenile diprotodontids, which it was large enough to take).
Life cycle[]
Living species of Liasis are oviparous (egg-laying), and, like other Australian pythons, incubate their eggs by coiling around them until they hatch. Liasis dubudingalaundoubtedly did the same. The Olive Python often hunts at night and will sometimes lie in wait in waterholes for its prey. Liasis dubudingala, found in freshwater deposits, may have had a similar hunting strategy.
Era/Period[]
Pliocene epoch of the Neogene period.
Evolutionary Relationships[]
Liasis dubudingala is known only from isolated vertebrae, which are probably not enough for confident identification and for hypotheses about evolutionary relationships. Diagnoses of Pythoninae (the python subfamily within Boidae) may not include vertebral morphology because many vertebral characters are primitive within boids (and therefore of little use in determining relationships).
Further reading[]
Scanlon, J. D. 2006. Chapter 17: Origins and radiations of snakes in Australasia. Pp. 309-330 in Merrick, J. R., Archer, M., Hickey, G. M. and Lee, M. S. Y. (eds) Evolution and Biogeography of Australasian Vertebrates.Australian Scientific Publishing, Oatlands.
An Olive Python, the Bluff Downs Python's closest living relative.
Pictures[]
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Fossil remains of the Bluff Downs giant python