A new species of giant snake has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest: it weighs up to 500 kg.

Scientists working in the Amazon rainforest have discovered a new species of snake that is rumored to be the largest in the world.

A team from the University of Queensland traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon in search of the previously undocumented northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima), following an invitation from the Waorani people to observe the anacondas, “rumored to be the largest in existence,” according to scientists.

As reported by CNN, the team joined hunters on a 10-day expedition to the Bameno region of the Bayouari Waorani territory before heading down the river system to “find a few anacondas lurking in the shallows waiting for prey,” said Professor Brian Fry, a biologist. from the University of Queensland, who led the team, the statement said.

Anacondas are giant, non-venomous snakes that live in or near water in warm areas of South America, CNN recalls.

“The size of these magnificent creatures was incredible – one female anaconda we encountered measured an astonishing 6.3 meters in length,” said Professor Brian Fry of the team’s discovery, which was made while filming the upcoming National Geographic series Pole to poles with Will Smith.”

The team also said they had heard anecdotal evidence that snakes measuring 7.5 meters long and weighing 500 kilograms had been spotted in the area.

Green anacondas are the heaviest snakes in the world, according to the Natural History Museum of Great Britain, which noted that the heaviest specimen ever recorded weighed 227 kilograms. Its length was 8.43 meters and its width was 1.11 meters, CNN notes.

While the other species, the reticulated python, tends to be longer—often reaching more than 6.25 meters in length—it is lighter.

The discovery was made during the filming of the National Geographic series.

But experts studying the creatures have discovered that the newly identified northern green anaconda species diverged from the southern green anaconda nearly 10 million years ago, and they differ genetically by 5.5%.

“It’s pretty significant—to put it in perspective, humans are only about 2 percent different from chimpanzees,” Fry said. The results are described in the journal MDPI Diversity.

The team then decided to compare the green anaconda’s genetics with other specimens elsewhere to evaluate them as indicator species of ecosystem health, and warned that the Amazon faces multiple threats.

“Deforestation of the Amazon due to agricultural expansion has led to an estimated 20 to 31 percent habitat loss, which could affect up to 40 percent of its forests by 2050,” Fry said.

Habitat degradation, forest fires, drought and climate change threaten rare species like anacondas that exist in such rare ecosystems, the professor added.