‘Snake Devours Elephant’ – Is it Really a Myth?
We Chinese have an old saying, 'A snake devours an elephant if its heart is not satisfied.' This is used to illustrate those who are greedy, just like a snake wanting to devour an elephant, and as a result, it is crushed by the elephant. From this saying, it is believed that snakes cannot eat elephants, but is this really the case? Perhaps someone would say that snakes in myths and legends can devour elephants, but this is only in reality, that would be wrong. There was once a python in history that could actually swallow elephants, it lived in the ancient times, the Titan Python.
The Titan Python is the largest snake known in the world. Modern pythons are just a smaller version of them, a mature Titan Python can reach a length of ten to fifteen meters, and a weight of over one ton, while the largest modern python is only 7-8 meters long. So huge Titan Pythons there were almost no natural enemies in that era, it was a top predator in the food chain.
The Titan Python's diet was very broad. According to experts' estimates, the Titan Python mainly ate half-ton dwarf crocodiles and lungfish, in addition to eating some large turtles. It is not surprising that the Titan Python's digestive ability was so strong. Such a powerful hunter, if it were placed in today's world, it would be a destructive force. The scene in the movie 'Python Disaster' would probably be a resurrection.
Everyone must be curious, since the Titan Python was so powerful, why did it go extinct? The scientific community has two theories. The first view is that the Titan Python's food went extinct first. Although the Titan Python was strong, its strength was based on having enough food. If its food went extinct on a large scale, the Titan Python would have nothing to eat and would naturally go extinct.
The second saying is that the Earth's climate changed dramatically. The Titan Python, as a variable-temperature animal, needs enough heat to survive. Scientists estimated that the Titan Python's period of life the Earth's temperature was constantly above 30 degrees Celsius. If the temperature suddenly changed and the Titan Python could not adapt to the new environment, it would naturally go extinct.
