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Laticauda
Sea kraits are a genus of venomous snakes (subfamily: Laticaudinae), ''Laticauda''. They are semiaquatic, and retain the wide ventral scales typical of terrestrial snakes for moving on land, but also have paddle-shaped tails for swimming. Unlike fully aquatic ovoviviparous sea snakes, sea kraits are oviparous and must come to land to digest prey and lay eggs. They also have independent evolutionary origins into aquatic habitats, with sea kraits diverging earlier from other Australasian elapids. Thus, sea kraits and sea snakes are an example of convergent evolution into aquatic habitats within the Hydrophiinae snakes. Sea kraits are also often confused with land kraits (genus '' Bungarus''), which are not aquatic. Description Sea kraits are semiaquatic, so have morphological adaptations to both land and sea. ''Laticauda'' species show traits intermediate between those of sea snakes and terrestrial elapids. They have a vertically flattened and paddle-shaped tail (similar to sea sn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laticauda Colubrina
The yellow-lipped sea krait (''Laticauda colubrina''), also known as the banded sea krait or colubrine sea krait, is a species of highly venomous snake found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceanic waters. The snake has distinctive black stripes and a yellow snout, with a paddle-like tail for use in swimming. It spends much of its time under water to hunt, but returns to land to digest, rest, and reproduce. It has very potent neurotoxic venom, which it uses to prey on eels and small fish. Because of its affinity to land, the yellow-lipped sea krait often encounters humans, but the snake is not aggressive and only attacks when feeling threatened. Description The head of a yellow-lipped sea krait is black, with lateral nostrils and an undivided rostral scale. The upper lip and snout are characteristically colored yellow, and the yellow color extends backward on each side of the head above the eye to the temporal scales. The body of the snake is subcylindrical, and is taller than it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laticauda Laticaudata
The blue-lipped sea krait (''Laticauda laticaudata''), also known as the blue-banded sea krait or common sea krait, is a species of venomous sea snake in the subfamily Laticaudinae of the family Elapidae. It is found in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. Taxonomy The blue-lipped sea krait was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', where it was given the binomial name ''Coluber laticaudatus''. There are two subspecies, ''Laticauda laticaudata laticaudata'' and ''Laticauda laticaudata affinis''. Description Ventral scales of this snake are large, one-third to more than one-half the width of the body; the nostrils are lateral; nasal scales are separated by internasals; 19 longitudinal rows of imbricate scales are found at midbody; no azygous prefrontal shield is present; rostral scales are undivided; ventrals number 225–243; subcaudals number 38–47 in males, females have 30–35 (ventral an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Snake
Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are Elapidae, elapid snakes that inhabit Marine (ocean), marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Sea krait, Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, whereas Laticaudinae only includes the sea kraits (''Laticauda''), of which three species are found exclusively in freshwater. If these three freshwater species are excluded, there are 69 species of sea snakes divided among seven Genus, genera. Most sea snakes are venomous snake, venomous, except the genus ''Emydocephalus'', which feeds almost exclusively on fish eggs. Sea snakes are extensively adapted to a fully aquatic life and are unable to move on land, except for the sea kraits, which have limited land movement. They are found in warm coastal waters from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and are closely related to venomous terrestrial snakes in Australia. All sea snakes have paddle-like tails and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-banded Sea Kraits
The black-banded sea krait (''Laticauda semifasciata''), also known commonly as the Chinese sea snake or erabu, is a largely amphibious species of extremely venomous marine reptile in the subfamily Laticaudinae, family Elapidae ( cobras, mambas, coralsnakes and their kin). It is found in much of the western Pacific Ocean and some of the Sea of Japan. In Japan, it is known as ''erabu umi hebi'' ( :ja:エラブウミヘビ, 'erabu sea snake'); in Okinawa, it is known simply as ''irabu''. This sea krait frequents coral reef habitats, where it can explore tight spaces for prey, as it has a short head, thick trunk, and no easily discernible neck. The tail is simply extended skin, spread wide like a fin, and unsupported by any bony projections from the vertebral column. The stomach is comparatively wide. Massing together near the shore, it breeds between narrow cracks in the reef and in caves. It is a nocturnal snake, rarely seen during the day. It breathes air; so it breaks th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elapids
Elapidae (, commonly known as elapids , from , variant of "sea-fish") is a family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus '' Emydocephalus''. Many members of this family exhibit a threat display of rearing upwards while spreading out a neck flap. Elapids are endemic to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, with terrestrial forms in Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas and marine forms in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Members of the family have a wide range of sizes, from the white-lipped snake to the king cobra. Most species have neurotoxic venom that is channeled by their hollow fangs, and some may contain other toxic components in varying proportions. The family includes 55 genera with around 360 species and over 170 subspecies. Description Terrestrial elapids look similar to the Colubridae; almost all have long, slender bodies with smooth scales, a h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ventral Scales
In snakes, the ventral scales or gastrosteges are the enlarged and transversely elongated scales that extend down the underside of the body from the neck to the anal scale. When counting them, the first is the anteriormost ventral scale that contacts the paraventral (lowermost) row of dorsal scales on either side. The anal scale is not counted.Campbell JA, Lamar WW. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. 2 volumes. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 870 pp. 1500 plates. . The term gastrostege (from Greek γαστήρ, γαστρός = belly and στέγη, στέγος = cover, roof) was more often used in the older literature, especially pre-1900 but is rarely used today. Related scales * Preventral scales * Anal scale * Subcaudal scales * Paraventral scales See also * Snake scale Snakes, like other reptiles, have skin covered in scales.Boulenger, George A. 1890 The Fauna of British India. p. 1 Snakes are entirely covered with scales or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Caledonia
New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of the French Republic, a legal status unique in overseas France, and is enshrined in a dedicated chapter of the French Constitution. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre (New Caledonia), Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines (New Caledonia), Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. French people, especially locals, call Grande Terre , a nickname also used more generally for the entire New Caledonia. Kanak people#Agitation for independence, Pro-independence Kanak parties use the name (''pron.'' ) to refer to New Caledonia, a term coined in the 1980s from the ethnic name of the indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conger Eel
''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during the day in parts of the Mediterranean Sea, and both European and American congers are sometimes caught by fishermen along the European and North American Atlantic coasts. The life histories of most conger eels are poorly known. Based on collections of their small leptocephalus larvae, the American conger eel has been found to spawn in the southwestern Sargasso Sea, close to the spawning areas of the Atlantic freshwater eels. "Conger" or "conger eel" is sometimes included in the common names of species of the family Congridae, including members of this genus. Description Congers have wide mouths with sturdy teeth, usually a variant of gray or black in coloration. They have no scales. Their body weight can reach over . Species * †'' Conger brevisulcus' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phenotypic Trait
A phenotypic trait, simply trait, or character state is a distinct variant of a phenotypic characteristic of an organism; it may be either inherited or determined environmentally, but typically occurs as a combination of the two.Lawrence, Eleanor (2005) ''Henderson's Dictionary of Biology''. Pearson, Prentice Hall. For example, having eye color is a ''character'' of an organism, while blue, brown and hazel versions of eye color are ''traits''. The term ''trait'' is generally used in genetics, often to describe the phenotypic expression of different combinations of alleles in different individual organisms within a single population, such as the famous purple vs. white flower coloration in Gregor Mendel's pea plants. By contrast, in systematics, the term ''character state'' is employed to describe features that represent fixed diagnostic differences among taxa, such as the absence of tails in great apes, relative to other primate groups. Definition A phenotypic trait is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moray Eel
Moray eels, or Muraenidae (), are a family (biology), family of eels whose members are found worldwide. There are approximately 200 species in 15 genera which are almost exclusively Marine (ocean), marine, but several species are regularly seen in brackish water, and a few are found in fresh water. The English name, ''moray'', dates back to the early 17th century, and is believed to be a derivative from Portuguese language, Portuguese , which itself derives from Latin , in turn from Greek language, Greek , ; these are the Latin and Greek names of the Mediterranean moray. Anatomy The dorsal fin extends from just behind the head along the back and joins seamlessly with the caudal fin, caudal and anal fins. Most species lack pectoral fin, pectoral and pelvic fins, adding to their serpentine appearance. Their eyes are rather small; morays rely mostly on their highly developed sense of smell, lying in wait to Ambush predator, ambush prey. The body is generally patter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Littoral Zone
The littoral zone, also called litoral or nearshore, is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely flood, inundated), to coastal areas that are permanently underwater, submerged — known as the ''foreshore'' — and the terms are often used interchangeably. However, the geographical meaning of ''littoral zone'' extends well beyond the intertidal zone to include all neritic waters within the bounds of continental shelves. Etymology The word ''littoral'' may be used both as a noun and as an adjective. It derives from the Latin language, Latin noun ''litus, litoris'', meaning "shore". (The doubled ''t'' is a late-medieval innovation, and the word is sometimes seen in the more classical-looking spelling ''litoral''.) Description The term has no single definition. What is regarded as the full extent of the littoral zone, and the way the littora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of island countries, sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The Geography of New Zealand, country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps (), owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. Capital of New Zealand, New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and subsequently developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
