--- title: Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant tortoises — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant tortoises», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Imagine one piece of a snake's backbone bigger than your fist. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa,… # Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant tortoises Lesson 383 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/0/) — Imagine one piece of a snake's backbone bigger than your fist. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/1/) — Scientists found pieces like that in a coal mine in Colombia, and from them they worked out a snake about 13 metres long, as heavy as a small car: Titanoboa. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/2/) — Long ago there were other reptile giants too: SuperCroc in Africa with a skull as long as a grown-up is tall, Deinosuchus in North America that bit dinosaurs, sea turtles longer than a car and a giant lizard in Australia. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/3/) — Reptiles are cold-blooded: they get their body heat from their surroundings. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/4/) — Some scientists think a warmer world helped these giants grow so big, but that is still argued. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/5/) — Scientists often have only a few bones, so they compare them with living animals to guess the size, and they honestly say «we don't know» when the clues run out. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/6/) — Big animals need lots of food and have few babies, so when climates changed and rivers moved, the giants were among the first to go. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/7/) — Titanoboa lived in South America about 60 million years ago, soon after the dinosaurs died out, and its bones were found in a coal mine in Colombia. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/8/) — From its backbone pieces scientists think Titanoboa was about 13 metres long and as heavy as a small car, about twice as long as the biggest snakes today. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/9/) — Titanoboa lived in a warm, steamy world of rivers and may have eaten mostly big fish; whether warmth let it grow so big is still argued. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/10/) — A big snake has a few hundred backbone pieces, nearly each with a pair of ribs; you have 33 backbone pieces and 24 ribs. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/11/) — Sarcosuchus, called SuperCroc, lived in Africa about 110 million years ago, grew about 9 to 12 metres long and its fossils were found in the Sahara, which then had rivers and swamps. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/12/) — SuperCroc had a round bony bump at the tip of its snout, and nobody knows for sure what it was for. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/13/) — Deinosuchus was a giant alligator relative in North America about 80 to 75 million years ago, with thick blunt crushing teeth, and some dinosaur bones carry its bite marks. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/14/) — Archelon was a sea turtle about 75 million years ago, longer than a car, with four flippers and a leathery shell, like today's leatherback. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/15/) — Stupendemys lived in South American rivers several million years ago, had a shell over two metres long, and some shells were reported to have two horns at the front. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/16/) — Megalania was a giant monitor lizard in Australia until about 50,000 years ago; its size is argued, but many think about 5 to 7 metres. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/17/) — The saltwater crocodile, up to about 6 metres long, is the biggest living reptile. - ← previous: [The Chinese zodiac: the twelve real animals behind the signs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/382-the-chinese-zodiac-the-twelve-real-animals-behind-the-signs/) - next →: [Mammal giants of the past: Paraceratherium, Diprotodon, the giant beaver and Gigantopithecus](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)