''Enhydrina zweifeli'' is a species of

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

s found from

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

to Australia (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

and

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

). In the past they were thought to be ''

Enhydrina schistosa ''Enhydrina schistosa'', commonly known as the beaked sea snake, hook-nosed sea snake, common sea snake, or the Valakadeyan sea snake, is a highly venomous species of sea snake common throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. This species is implic ...

'', but after DNA testing are now provisionally identified as ''Enhydrina zweifeli''. DNA test have shown they are not related to ''Enhydrina schistosa''. ''Enhydrina zweifeli'' are commonly known as the Sepik beaked seasnake or Zweifel's beaked seasnake. ''Enhydrina zweifeli'' is a highly venomous species of

sea snake Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, wher ...

. Studied ''Enhydrina zweifeli'' have been near the mouth of

Sepik River The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

of New Guinea. The University of Queensland, Deadly sea snake has a doppelganger, 19 November 2012
/ref>

References

* Golay,P, H.M. SMITH, D.G. BROADLEY, J. R. DIXON, C., MCCARTHY, J. C. RAGE, B. SCHÀTTI & M.TORIBA 1993. Endoglyphs and other major venomous snakes of the world. A checklist. Aire-Genève, Azemiops S. A. Herpetological Data Center: i-xv + 1-478. * Kharin V. E. 1985. A new species of sea snakes of the genus Enhydrina (Serpentes, Hydrophiidae) from waters of New Guinea.

n Russian N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 64 (5): 785-787 * Kharin, Vladimir E. and Vladimir P. Czeblukov 2009. A Revision of the Sea Snakes of Subfamily Hydrophiinae. 1. Tribe Disteirini Nov. (Serpentes: Hydrophiidae). Russian Journal of Herpetology 16 (3):183-202

External links

* *
The Reptile House
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2591083 Snakes of New Guinea zweifeli Reptiles described in 1985 Snakes of Australia Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN