50-foot 'king of the serpents' may have been the biggest snake to ever live

Scientists in India have discovered the fossilized remains of an ancient snake that may be the largest known serpent to ever live.

The supersized serpent may have measured 50 feet (15 meters) long — surpassing the current record-holder Titanoboa by around 6.5 feet (2 m).

The newly identified species, named Vasuki Indicus, takes its genus name from the mythical king of serpents in Hinduism, which is often depicted wrapped around the neck of one of Hinduism's main deities, Shiva.

A total of 27 fossilized vertebrae from the enormous snake were unearthed at the Panandhro Lignite Mine in Gujarat state. The fossils date to around 47 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch (56 million to 33.9 million years ago). The authors think the fossils came from a fully grown adult.

The team estimated the serpent's total body length using the width of the snake's spine bones and found that V. indicus could have ranged from between 36 feet and 50 feet (11 and 15 m) long, although they acknowledge there may be a possible error associated with their estimate. They published their findings Thursday (April 18) in the journal Scientific Reports.

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The researchers used two methods to come up with possible ranges for V. indicus' body length. Both used present-day snakes to determine the relationship between the width of a snake's vertebrae and its length — but they differed in the datasets they used.