As we're on the topic of snakes...

...the news today is full of stories about a very big snake. In Nature this week there is a paper describing the largest snake ever discovered: a a 60-million-year-old South American Titanoboa. Sounds like a snake I might not be so keen to meet up with. Being the slacker I am I haven't got to the actual paper yet, but news stories are here, here and here.