The keel-bellied water snake (''Bitia hydroides'') is a
marine homalopsine snake
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
. It belongs to the
monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
''Bitia''.
EOL.org
/ref>
Geographic range
It is found in Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
.
Dentition
''Bitia hydroides'' is noted for its unusual dentition
Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiology ...
. In all other snakes, any enlarged teeth are located on the dentary
In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla).
The jawbone ...
or maxilla
In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...
, with the inner, palatine
A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times. teeth of the upper jaw being smaller. In ''Bitia hydroides'', the palatine teeth are greatly enlarged. Not enough is known about this animal's feeding behavior
Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...
or ecology to attempt to infer a function of this peculiar arrangement.
See also
*Snake skull
A snake skeleton consists primarily of the skull, vertebrae, and ribs, with only vestigial remnants of the limbs.
Skull
The skull of a snake is a very complex structure, with numerous joints to allow the snake to swallow prey far larger than it ...
*Snake dentition
A snake skeleton consists primarily of the skull, vertebrae, and ribs, with only vestigial limb, vestigial remnants of the limbs.
Skull
The skull of a snake is a very complex structure, with numerous joints to allow the snake to swallow prey fa ...
References
*http://www.jstor.org/stable/1447028
*Lu, S.; Pang, J.; Yang, D. 2006. Morphological phylogeny of the water snake subfamily Homalopsinae (Serpent: Colubridae). ''Zoological Research'' 27 (4): 363–366.
*Manthey, U. & Grossmann, W. 1997. "Amphibien & Reptilien Südostasiens". Natur und Tier Verlag (Münster), 512 pp.
*Murphy, John C. 2007. Homalopsid Snakes: Evolution in the Mud. Krieger Publishing, Malabar, Florida, 249 pp.
*Smedley, N. 1931. Notes on some Malaysian snakes. ''Bull. Raffl. Mus.'' No 5: 49–54
*Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp.
*Stoliczka, F. 1870. Observations of some Indian and Malayan Amphibia and Reptilia. ''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.'' (4) 6: 105–109
*Taylor, E.H. 1965. The serpents of Thailand and adjacent waters. ''Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull.'' 45 (9): 609–1096
*Voris, Harold K., Michael E. Alfaro, Daryl R. Karns, G. Lucas Starnes, Emma Thompson and John C. Murphy 2002. Phylogenetic relationships of the Oriental-Australian rear-fanged water snakes (Colubridae: Homalopsinae) based on Mitochondrial DNA sequences. ''Copeia'' 2002 (4): 906–915
*Voris, Harold K., Bruce C. Jayne, Todd J. Ward. "Morphology, Reproduction, and Diet of the Marine Homalopsine Snake Bitia hydroides in Peninsular Malaysia.". ''Copeia'', Vol. 1995, No. 4 (Dec. 21, 1995), pp. 800–808.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keel-Bellied Water Snake
Homalopsidae
Reptiles described in 1842
Taxa named by John Edward Gray