Reuters Science News Summary

They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus, would have looked like a modern-day large python and would not have been venomous. Gigantic marine reptile's fossils found by British girl and father A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Head of Russian space agency says work under way on modernised Angara rocket

Russia is working on a modernised Angara-A5M rocket capable of launching manned spacecraft, and plans to launch it in 2027, the head of its Roscosmos state space agency said on Wednesday. "Already now, by order of Roscosmos, a modernized Angara-A5M rocket with a more powerful propulsion engine is being created," Yury Borisov said in televised comments.

Three Russians parachute from stratosphere to North Pole

Three Russians set a world record for parachuting from the Earth's stratosphere to the North Pole last week in a mission that also served as a test of a new prototype communications system for use in the Arctic, an organiser of the venture told Reuters. Mikhail Korniyenko, Alexander Lynnik and Denis Yefremov hurled themselves from an Ilyushin-76 plane at a height of 10,500 metres (34,450 feet) and spent about two and a half minutes in freefall before opening their chutes 1,000 metres above the ground. The descent was captured in a spectacular video.

Fossils of colossal snake Vasuki unearthed in India mine

Fossil vertebrae unearthed in a lignite mine are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 49 feet (15 meters) in length - longer than a T. rex - that prowled the swamps of India around 47 million years ago. Scientists said on Thursday they have recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few still in the same position as they would have been when the limbless reptile was alive. They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus, would have looked like a modern-day large python and would not have been venomous.

Gigantic marine reptile's fossils found by British girl and father

A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 72 and 85 feet (22-26 meters) long.