Gigantophis garstini

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.

Gigantophis garstini

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GigantophisPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Length
10.7 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 7.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 41.03 Mya and 33.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41.5 Mya33.4 Mya

3 occurrences of Gigantophis garstini on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Qasr el-Sagha — 29.62°N, 30.69°EBirket Qarun — 29.60°N, 30.60°E

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The named rock units Gigantophis garstini has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gigantophis garstini and its relatives

Eocene

Where Gigantophis garstini and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

46 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Gigantophis garstini, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Gigantophis garstini

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Gigantophis garstini was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGigantophis through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Andrews 1901