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What is the largest snake in the world?
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Infographic showing the size comparison of the largest snakes recorded: the prehistoric Titanoboa and two reticulated pythons, Medusa and Ibu Baron, alongside an average adult U.S. male human silhouette, highlighting their lengths and weights. A reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) coiled around a branch, showing its patterned yellow, black, and brown scales with a blurred green background. Green anaconda (Eunectes species) Anaconda and Titanoboa vertebrae
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Infographic showing the size comparison of the largest snakes recorded: the prehistoric Titanoboa and two reticulated pythons, Medusa and Ibu Baron, alongside an average adult U.S. male human silhouette, highlighting their lengths and weights.
Size comparison: Titanoboa and two of the longest reticulated pythons recorded Comparing some of the largest known snakes—Titanoboa, Medusa, and Ibu Baron—next to an average adult U.S. male for scale.

What is the largest snake in the world?

Written by
Shabnam Dohutia
Shabnam Dohutia is executive editor, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Having worked in various editorial positions at Oxford University Press and Pearson, Shabnam has almost two decades’ experience in content...
Shabnam Dohutia
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
Last updated
‱History

Reticulated pythons and green anacondas are the largest living snakes in the world, but the answer to “What is the largest snake in the world?” depends on what you’re looking for: the longest snake alive, the heaviest snake alive, the longest or heaviest snake to ever have existed, or the species whose individuals frequently rank among the world’s longest or heaviest. In any case, the colossal 40–80-foot monsters depicted in Hollywood movies are—breathe easy—exaggerated, at...

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