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Green anaconda
The green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), also known as the giant anaconda, emerald anaconda, common anaconda, common water boa, northern green anaconda, or akayima, is a semi-aquatic boa species found in South America and the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the largest, heaviest, and one of the longest snakes in the world. Like all boas, it is a non-venomous constrictor. The term "anaconda" often refers to this species, though this term also applies to other members of the genus Eunectes. Fossils of the snake date back to the Late Pleistocene in the Gruta do Urso locality.
In the famous 10th edition of Systema Naturae of 1758, Carl Linnaeus cited descriptions by Albertus Seba and by Laurens Theodorus Gronovius to erect the distinct species murina of his new genus Boa, which contained eight other species, including Boa constrictor. The generic name Boa came from an ancient Latin word for a type of large snake. The first specimens of Boa murina were of immature individuals from 75 to 90 cm (2.5 to 3.0 ft) in length. In 1830, Johann Georg Wagler erected the separate genus Eunectes for Linnaeus's Boa murina after more and larger specimens were known and described. Because of the masculine gender of Eunectes, the feminine Latin specific name murina was changed to murinus.
Linnaeus almost certainly chose the scientific name Boa murina based on the original Latin description given by Albertus Seba in 1735: "Serpens testudinea americana, murium insidiator" [tortoise-patterned (spotted) American snake, a predator that lies in wait for mice (and rats)]. The Latin adjective murinus (murina) in this case would mean "of mice" or "connected with mice", understood in context as "preying on mice", and not as "mouse-gray-colored", another possible meaning of Latin murinus, as now often wrongly indicated for E. murinus.
Early English-language sources, such as George Shaw, referred to the Boa murina as the "rat boa". The Penny Cyclopaedia (Vol. 5) entry for boa explained: "The trivial name murina was given to it from being said to lie in wait for mice." Linnaeus described the appearance of the Boa murina in Latin as rufus maculis supra rotundatis [reddish-brown with rounded spots on upper parts] and made no reference to a gray coloration. Early descriptions of the green anaconda by different authors variously referred to the general color like brown, glaucous, green, or gray.
Common names for E. murinus include green anaconda, anaconda, common anaconda, and water boa. The word akayima and variants (okoyimo, okoimo) have been used by the local Carib people to refer to the green anaconda for centuries before its formal scientific description. The name akayima comes from the local Cariban languages, with akayi meaning "snake" and the suffix -ima describing largeness in a way that elevates the term to a separate category, giving a literal meaning of "The Great Snake".
Several proposals have been made to split a new species or subspecies from the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), such as Eunectes gigas (Latreille, 1801), Eunectes barbouri (Dunn and Conant, 1936), and Eunectes akayima (Rivas et al., 2024). These proposed species are now considered synonymous with E. murinus.
The green anaconda is the world's heaviest and one of the world's longest snakes, reaching a length of up to 6.32 m (20 ft 9 in) long. More typical mature specimens reportedly can range up to 5 m (16 ft 5 in), with adult females, with a mean length of about 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in), being generally much larger than the males, which average around 3 m (9 ft 10 in). Weights are less well studied, though reportedly range from 30 to 80 kg (66 to 176 lb) in a typical adult.
It is the largest snake native to the Americas. Although it is slightly shorter than the reticulated python, it is far bulkier. The bulk of a 5.2-metre (17 ft 1 in) green anaconda is comparable to that of a 7.4-metre (24 ft 3 in) reticulated python. Reports of anacondas 11–12 m (35–40 ft) or even longer also exist, but such claims must be regarded with caution, as no specimens of such lengths have ever been deposited in a museum and hard evidence is lacking. The longest and heaviest verified specimen encountered by Dr. Jesús Antonio Rivas, who had examined more than 1,000 anacondas, was a female 5.21 m (17 ft 1 in) long and weighing 97.5 kg (214 lb 15 oz). In 1937, a specimen shot in Guyana was claimed to have measured 5.9 m (19 ft 4 in) long and weighed 163 kg (359 lb 6 oz).
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Green anaconda
The green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), also known as the giant anaconda, emerald anaconda, common anaconda, common water boa, northern green anaconda, or akayima, is a semi-aquatic boa species found in South America and the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the largest, heaviest, and one of the longest snakes in the world. Like all boas, it is a non-venomous constrictor. The term "anaconda" often refers to this species, though this term also applies to other members of the genus Eunectes. Fossils of the snake date back to the Late Pleistocene in the Gruta do Urso locality.
In the famous 10th edition of Systema Naturae of 1758, Carl Linnaeus cited descriptions by Albertus Seba and by Laurens Theodorus Gronovius to erect the distinct species murina of his new genus Boa, which contained eight other species, including Boa constrictor. The generic name Boa came from an ancient Latin word for a type of large snake. The first specimens of Boa murina were of immature individuals from 75 to 90 cm (2.5 to 3.0 ft) in length. In 1830, Johann Georg Wagler erected the separate genus Eunectes for Linnaeus's Boa murina after more and larger specimens were known and described. Because of the masculine gender of Eunectes, the feminine Latin specific name murina was changed to murinus.
Linnaeus almost certainly chose the scientific name Boa murina based on the original Latin description given by Albertus Seba in 1735: "Serpens testudinea americana, murium insidiator" [tortoise-patterned (spotted) American snake, a predator that lies in wait for mice (and rats)]. The Latin adjective murinus (murina) in this case would mean "of mice" or "connected with mice", understood in context as "preying on mice", and not as "mouse-gray-colored", another possible meaning of Latin murinus, as now often wrongly indicated for E. murinus.
Early English-language sources, such as George Shaw, referred to the Boa murina as the "rat boa". The Penny Cyclopaedia (Vol. 5) entry for boa explained: "The trivial name murina was given to it from being said to lie in wait for mice." Linnaeus described the appearance of the Boa murina in Latin as rufus maculis supra rotundatis [reddish-brown with rounded spots on upper parts] and made no reference to a gray coloration. Early descriptions of the green anaconda by different authors variously referred to the general color like brown, glaucous, green, or gray.
Common names for E. murinus include green anaconda, anaconda, common anaconda, and water boa. The word akayima and variants (okoyimo, okoimo) have been used by the local Carib people to refer to the green anaconda for centuries before its formal scientific description. The name akayima comes from the local Cariban languages, with akayi meaning "snake" and the suffix -ima describing largeness in a way that elevates the term to a separate category, giving a literal meaning of "The Great Snake".
Several proposals have been made to split a new species or subspecies from the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), such as Eunectes gigas (Latreille, 1801), Eunectes barbouri (Dunn and Conant, 1936), and Eunectes akayima (Rivas et al., 2024). These proposed species are now considered synonymous with E. murinus.
The green anaconda is the world's heaviest and one of the world's longest snakes, reaching a length of up to 6.32 m (20 ft 9 in) long. More typical mature specimens reportedly can range up to 5 m (16 ft 5 in), with adult females, with a mean length of about 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in), being generally much larger than the males, which average around 3 m (9 ft 10 in). Weights are less well studied, though reportedly range from 30 to 80 kg (66 to 176 lb) in a typical adult.
It is the largest snake native to the Americas. Although it is slightly shorter than the reticulated python, it is far bulkier. The bulk of a 5.2-metre (17 ft 1 in) green anaconda is comparable to that of a 7.4-metre (24 ft 3 in) reticulated python. Reports of anacondas 11–12 m (35–40 ft) or even longer also exist, but such claims must be regarded with caution, as no specimens of such lengths have ever been deposited in a museum and hard evidence is lacking. The longest and heaviest verified specimen encountered by Dr. Jesús Antonio Rivas, who had examined more than 1,000 anacondas, was a female 5.21 m (17 ft 1 in) long and weighing 97.5 kg (214 lb 15 oz). In 1937, a specimen shot in Guyana was claimed to have measured 5.9 m (19 ft 4 in) long and weighed 163 kg (359 lb 6 oz).