Pelamis platura

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Pelagic Sea Snake

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Hydrophiidae
Genus:	Pelamis
Species:	P. platura

Binomial name

Pelamis platura
(Linnaeus, 1766)

Yellowbelly Sea Snake or Pelagic Sea Snake Pelamis platura is a species of sea snake found in tropical oceanic waters around the world.

1 Identification
2 Distribution
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Identification

See snake scales for terminology used here

Body compressed, posteriorly more than twice the diameter of the neck; body scales juxtaposed, sub-quadrangular in shape, in 49-67 rows around thickest part of body; ventral scales, 264-406, very small and, if distinct, divided by a longitudinal groove, but usually indistinguishable from adjacent body scales; head narrow, snout elongate, head shields entire, nostrils superior, nasal shields in contact with one another; pre-frontal in contact with second upper labial; 1-2 pre- and 2-3 post-oculars; 2-3 small anterior temporals; 7-8 upper labials, 4-5 below eye but separated from border by sub-ocular; color variable but most often distinctly bi-colored, black above, yellow or brown below, the dorsal and ventral colors sharply demarcated from one another; ventrally there may be a series of black spots or bars on the yellow or brown background, or the yellow may extend dorsally so that there is only a narrow mid-dorsal black stripe, or a series of black crossbars (M A Smith 1943:476-477 gives more complete description of the color pattern variants). Total length males 720 mm, females 880 mm; tail length males 80 mm, females 90 mm.

[edit] Distribution

Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean (Japan), South China Sea northward to the coastal regions of Zhejiang and Taiwan, Persian Gulf (Oman etc.) to Bay of Bengal, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Malaysia, coasts of Malay Peninsula and Indoa-ustralian Archipelago to New Guinea Gulf of Thailand and Philippines, Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands, Korea Russia (S Primorskij Territory; Only one dead specimen was found in Russia: on the coast of the Sea of Japan, near Vladivostok city), Madagascar, Tanzania , Australia (New South Wales, North Territory, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, West Australia), New Zealand, Solomon Islands [McCoy 2000].

New Caledonia, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama Colombia , Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Peru.

[edit] References

Hecht, M. K., Kropach, C. and Hecht, B. M. 1974 Distribution of the yellow-bellied sea snake Pelamis platurus, and its significance in relation to the fossil record. Herpetologica 30: 387-395.
Kropach, C. 1975 The yellow-bellied sea snake, Pelamis, in the eastern Pacific. Pp. 185-213 in: Dunson, W., ed., The Biology of Sea Snakes. Univ. Park Press, Baltimore, xi + 530 pp.