Chinese archeologists Sunday said they have discovered snake bones dating back to the Neolithic period, around 6,000 years ago.
The bones have been discovered in the Zuojiang River basin, south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Xinhua news agency reported.
The research was jointly carried out by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relic Protection and Archaeology.
The longest single vertebra unveiled at the site represents an individual snake belonging to the species Python bivittatus, the news agency reported citing Yang Qingping from the Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relic Protection and Archaeology.
The vertebra indicates the snake's overall body length exceeded 4.58 meters (over 15 feet), surpassing the previous record in China for this species of 3.56-m.
The new discovery will shed light on the history of hunting snakes in south China, which can be traced back to about 6,000 years ago.
Most of the unearthed snake bones, yang said, have suspected burn marks on the surface, and the mammalian bones piled up alongside also showed signs of manual cutting or striking.
He did not rule out that the prehistoric human beings in the region roasted food to process the meat.
The Zuojiang River basin boasts rich animal and plant resources with complex and diverse landforms and multiple prehistoric cultural heritages.
In 2016, UNESCO included a group of rock paintings dating back over 2,000 years in the basin in its world heritage list.
