The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium says workers found the 24-foot python Wednesday morning dead from an apparent tumor.
The snake was named Fluffy. It held the Guinness World Record as the longest snake living in captivity. It was about as long as a moving van and as thick as a telephone pole. It weighed 300 pounds.
The 18-year-old reticulated python had drawn large crowds since the zoo got it in 2007.
Reticulated pythons are named for the cross-hatching patterns on their skin and average 10 to 20 feet long. The largest recorded one was 32 feet, 9 1/2 inches long when it was killed in 1912 in Indonesia.
