Snakes Not Alive!

The finding of several large (13 m long and more than 1,250 kg in weight), fossil snakes in an open pit mine in Columbia (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/04/snake-giant-fossil-titanoboa) is intriguing. The giant snake (Titanoboa) was on the planet after the extinction of the dinosaurs and appears, from fossil bones found with it, to have been an ambush predator of giant crocodiles and turtles. It seems that such animals were one of the initial species to benefit in this location from dinosaur extinction (presumably, there were still boas around after the event as they can go underground) but it is uncertain why they, in turn, eventually became extinct. Or did they?