The yellow-bellied sea snake, Hydrophis platurus, is a highly venomous, fully marine snake of the subfamily Hydrophiinae within the family Elapidae, related to cobras and taipans but adapted to spend its entire life at sea, mating, feeding and giving live birth in open water. It shows a sharply bicolor pattern, yellow below and brown or black above, with a flattened paddle-like tail for swimming, males reaching up to 720 millimeters and females up to 880 millimeters, and adaptations including reduced ventral scales, a laterally compressed body, valved nostrils that keep out seawater, and the ability to exchange gas through its skin during long dives. It ranges across the entire tropical Indo-Pacific to Costa Rica, southern California and northern Peru, is the only sea snake to reach Hawaii, and has occasionally turned up in the Atlantic through range dispersal rather than as a native population.
Facts
Classification
System (Realm) Living or Extinct Scientific Name Conservation Status Connections
Child Taxon Of
Elapidae, Taxa Source Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Wikidata)
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Australia, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Colombia, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Mexico, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: North America, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: South America, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: South Asia, found in there.
Sources
1. GBIF Species API
2. Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Wikidata)
Wikidata- Wikidata Q1247379 (P225 taxon name)
- Wikidata P141 (IUCN conservation status) claim, entity QID Q1247379
Statements section, conservation status (P141)
IUCN Red List conservation status (Wikidata property P141): least concern.
- Child Taxon Of: Elapidae, Wikidata parent-taxon (P171) chain
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