Los Angeles ? It was the mother of all snakes, a behemoth as long as a school bus and as heavy as a Volkswagen Beetle, that ruled the Amazon rainforest for 2 million years before slithering into nonexistence.

Now this 43-foot-long monster has resurfaced in fossils taken from an open-pit coal mine in Colombia.

Modern boas and anacondas, which average less than 20 feet in length and reach a maximum of 30 feet, have been known to swallow Chihuahuas, cats and other small pets, but this prehistoric monster snacked on giant turtles and primitive crocodiles.

The find sheds light on snake evolution but also provides insights into climate. Because Titanoboa cerrejonensis, as it has been named, was cold-blooded, the tropical climate had to be 6 to 8 degrees warmer than it is today for a snake that large to survive, said evolutionary biologist Jason Head of the University of Toronto Mississauga, lead author of a paper on the fossils appearing today in the journal Nature.