A large South American snake that kills prey by constriction, similar to a boa constrictor.
From Portuguese 'aboma' or Spanish 'aboma', likely borrowed from an indigenous Tupi or Guarani language of South America. The word entered European languages in the 16th-17th centuries through colonial contact with Brazilian regions.
The aboma is one of the largest snakes in the world, yet it's not an anaconda—people often confuse it with other giant constrictors because they live in overlapping rainforest habitats and hunt similarly, making it a perfect example of convergent evolution in predators.
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