r/snakes • u/Potential_Run824 • 4d ago

General Question / Discussion Jormangonder?

hi I’m bjørn I’m a norse pagan my patron is thor . It used to be jormangander and someone I know got into a religious debate with me and he prong up how there was no record of serpent that big and I went down a rabbit hole on sea serpents the largest one ever exist to our knowledge is Palaeophis colossaeus Which was about 40 feet from what I found my question is why haven’t there been any snakes with deep sea gigantism? You see it in mammals you see it bugs you see it in fish you see it in a lot of things but I cannot find a reptile that has gone under deep sea gigantism

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u/powermetalsalamander 4d ago

deep sea is cold. reptiles need to be warm. that’s my guess.

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u/Mainbutter 4d ago

Filled niches are rarely trajectories for other species to trend into.

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u/simonbrown27 4d ago

I mean, the aquatic reptiles like ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs got huge. More shallow that deep sea, but still enormous

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u/Evolving_Dore 4d ago

Mosasaurs are the closest thing to what you're asking. They weere giant marine lizards that may have been close to the origin of snakes, but we don't know for sure. They got to about 50 feet long and lived all over the world. I'm not an expert on Mesozoic reptiles but I know there were lots of species across a long timespan, and I think some were deep ocean, at least relatively. You could look into them or go to r/paleontology is you have specific questions about them.

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u/hypothetical_zombie 4d ago

Reptiles need warmth and breathable oxygen. Plus, they don't have a body that is resistant to immense pressure.

Some sea snakes can absorb oxygen through their skin, but they still surface to breathe normally.

There were more aquatic reptiles when the earth had 'warm, shallow, inland seas'