{"id":85566,"date":"2026-02-02T17:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=85566"},"modified":"2026-02-02T17:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:09:11","slug":"vasuki-indicus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/vasuki-indicus\/","title":{"rendered":"Vasuki Indicus, Background, Size, Discovery, Significance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vasuki Indicus is the recent scientific discovery unveiled by professors of\u00a0 IIT Roorkee which is an ancient snake species fossil,\u00a0 believed to be one of the largest ever to roam the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Vasuki Indicus Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The newly discovered snake used to live in the region of present-day Gujarat about 47 million years ago, during the <\/span><b>Middle Eocene period. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a member of <\/span><b>now-extinct Madtsoiidae snake family<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> representing a distinctive lineage from India.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>About the discovery of Vasuki Indicus<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fossil was a unique discovery, hence it was named after the mythical snake often depicted around the neck of Hindu god Shiva, symbolizing its cultural significance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The amazing discovery of the snake fossil of length <\/span><b>11-15 metres was made in the Panandhro Lignite Mine in Kutch, Gujarat.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was inferred from the fossil that the body of Vasuki Indicus was broad and cylindrical, pointing towards a robust and powerful build.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From its size, it can considered a rival of the titleholder of the longest snake to ever roamed the earth <\/span><b>\u201cTitanoboa\u201d.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists are of opinion that Vasuki was able to live <\/span><b>due to its secretive hunting nature, like moving slowly and ambush for its prey.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to its huge size it was a formidable predator in the ancient ecosystem.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Significance of the discovery<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name not just reflects its Indian roots but also symbolises its close ties to the region\u2019s rich cultural heritage.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The discovery sheds light to the vibrant biodiversity which sustained the evolution of the such huge snakes during the Eocene period.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also gives insights about the geographical spread of <\/span><b>the Madtsoiidae family, believed to be existed approximately 100 million years ago across the regions of Africa, Europe and India.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The discovery is also significant to understand the ancient <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/ecosystem\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>ecosystem<\/strong><\/a> of Indian subcontinent in which the evolutionary history of snakes flourished.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The discovery of such a huge fossil is a moment of pride for the IIT Roorkee\u2019s commitment to advancing scientific knowledge and relentless pursuit of excellence in the research, giving a glance to our ancient rich and vibrant ecosystem and further expanding the scope for more such remarkable discoveries, which are yet to be unearthed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vasuki Indicus is a giant extinct snake discovered by IIT Roorkee in Gujarat, dating back 47 million years, offering key insights into ancient Indian ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":84452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[4993,5106,5094],"class_list":{"0":"post-85566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-environment-notes","10":"tag-vasuki-indicus","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85566"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85620,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85566\/revisions\/85620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}