Vasuki indicus

Vasuki indicus is an extinct snake species in the family Madtsoiidae that lived during the Middle Eocene in India. V. indicus is the only species in the genus Vasuki, known from several vertebrae found in the Naredi Formation. It has an estimated body length between 10.9–15.2 m (36–50 ft), making it the largest known madtsoiid. The highest length estimates place Vasuki among the longest snakes ever discovered.

Vasuki indicus

D. Datta & S. Bajpai · CC BY 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
VasukiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 7.1 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 48.07 Mya and 41.03 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Eocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEocene48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.6 Mya40.5 Mya

1 occurrence of Vasuki indicus 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

1 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

1 formation

Naredi — 23.68°N, 68.74°E

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The named rock units Vasuki indicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Vasuki indicus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Vasuki indicus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from that site.

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Vasuki indicus, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Vasuki indicus

Credit
D. Datta & S. Bajpai
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Vasuki indicus 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 itVasuki through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Datta and Bajpai 2024