CNN —Scientists working in the Amazon rainforest have discovered a new species of snake, rumored to be the biggest in the world. Green anacondas are the world’s heaviest snakes, according to the UK’s Natural History Museum, which noted that the heaviest individual ever recorded weighed 227 kilograms (500 pounds). It measured 8.43 meters long (27.7 feet) and 1.11 meters (3.6 feet) wide. Professor Bryan Fry/The University of QueenslandBut experts studying the creatures discovered that the newly identified northern green anaconda species diverged from the southern green anaconda almost 10 million years ago, and they differ genetically by 5.5%. Habitat degradation, forest fires, drought and climate change threaten rare species like the anacondas, which exist in such rare ecosystems, he added.

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Persons: anacondas, ”, Bryan Fry, anaconda, ” Fry, Will Smith Organizations: CNN —, University of Queensland, Geographic, anaconda Locations: Ecuadorian, Baihuaeri Waorani Territory, South America