A massive snake was discovered in the Amazon Rainforest. Researchers determined that the reptile belonging to the Northern Green Anaconda species was the biggest snake in the world.
Biggest Snake in the World
The Amazon Rainforest is home to the biggest snake in the world, measuring 26 feet long and weighing 440 pounds. As thick as a car tire, the Northern Green Anaconda was discovered by TV wildlife broadcaster Professor Freek Vonk.
Professor Vonk, 40, wasn't afraid to get close and personal with the snake despite it having a head the size of a human. The Dutch researcher is seen swimming adjacent to the massive anaconda in amazing footage shared on his Instagram. There is now just one species of Green Anaconda known to exist in the Amazon, also known as the Giant Anaconda.
"Together with 14 other scientists from nine countries, we discovered that the largest snake species in the world, the green anaconda," Vonk said. "As we all know it from movies and stories about giant snakes -- are actually two different species."
The green anacondas in Venezuela, Suriname, and French Guiana, located in the northern part of their range in South America, seem distinct. Despite their initial similarity, there is a 5.5% genetic difference between the two, which is a significant difference. To put this into perspective, there is just a 2% genetic difference between humans and chimps.
Eunectes akayima, or the Northern Green Anaconda, is the Latin name the researchers gave to this new species. However, the new species is already threatened, according to the researchers, even though it was only recently found. Vonk believes this is the case due to Amazon's significant challenges.
He says more than 30 times the size of the Netherlands, or more than a fifth of the Amazon, has already vanished. Preserving their natural habitat is essential to the survival of the famous big snakes.
Amazon Rainforest Could Collapse by 2050
The collapse of nearly half of the Amazon rainforest is a possibility. The "unprecedented stress" and several factors linked to climate change, such as deforestation and global warming, are some of the causes.
Ten percent of the Amazon was very prone to becoming degraded ecosystems with reduced tree cover or grasslands, the researcher concluded after evaluating data for five local causes of water stress and critical thresholds that run the danger of triggering the collapse of the system. Furthermore, by 2050, another 47% of the forest-mostly uncharted areas more vulnerable to extreme droughts like the one we are currently experiencing will collapse.
They discovered that the region is becoming more susceptible to significant droughts, wildfires, rising temperatures, and deforestation, even in the system's center and remote areas. They said that exceeding certain critical thresholds, sometimes called tipping points, might lead to "local, regional, or even biome-wide forest collapse" and have a domino effect on climate change on a local level.
"Once we cross this tipping point, we will lose control of how the system will behave," said ecologist Bernardo Flores of the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, lead author of the report. "The forest will die by itself."
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