You just don't get any more badass than the Titanoboa. I'm talking 48 feet long, 2500 pounds -- this behemoth ate large crocodiles for breakfast. Go out there and look up an image comparing Titanoboa vertebra to that of a modern Amazon boa constrictor -- there is no comparison. This snake pumped out babies bigger than any fully grown boa constrictor or python on Earth today.

Titanoboa: Monster Snake is an excellent documentary that takes you all the way from the unexpected discovery of the first giant snake fossils to the awesome reconstruction that brings Titanoboa as close to life as it has been in 60 million years.

So where did this monster live? Well, the fossils of Titanoboa and a plethora of other giant reptiles were hiding underground in the Cerrejon region of La Guajira, Colombia, until a coal-mining company showed up and started digging. Fortunately, scientists were given access to the site and started finding fossilized leaves and various bones that created the picture of a miniature little rainforest that existed immediately following the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs -- an era scientists know relatively little about due to a lack of fossils. In this lush marshy playground, Titanoboa ruled supreme, growing supersized in the abnormally warm climate and constricting the life out of anything that had the misfortune of getting in its way.

Not only do you get to watch graduate students and scientists get excited about this find of a lifetime, you also get to watch a couple of them go wading for anacondas as part of their study of Titanoboa's closest living cousin. Apparently, the best way to find anacondas is to go walking barefoot in the marshy waters they call home. Sometimes, though, as one scientist learns, the snake finds you before you find it. Fortunately, since anacondas are non-venomous constrictors, a nasty bite doesn't kill you.

This is a great documentary, especially for those of us fascinated by snakes. Titanoboa is even bigger than the unbelievably large monster snakes Hollywood has given us over the years. The day of the anaconda pretenders is now definitively over -- Titanoboa was, is, and always will be King of the Snakes.