Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Elapidae > Laticauda

Laticauda

Synonyms: Platura; Platurus; Platyurus

Wikipedia Abstract

Laticauda or sea kraits are a genus of venomous elapid snakes from the family Hydrophiinae. They are semi-aquatic, they retain the wide ventral scales typical of terrestrial snakes for moving on land but also have paddle-shaped tails for swimming. Sea kraits are often confused with another group of aquatic reptiles: sea snakes. However, unlike the 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 Hydrophiinae snakes.
View Wikipedia Record: Laticauda

Species

Laticauda colubrina (Colubrine or yellow-lipped sea krait) (Attributes)
Laticauda crockeri (Crocker's Sea Snake) (Vulnerable) (Attributes)
Laticauda frontalis (Yellow-lipped Sea Snake)
Laticauda guineai
Laticauda laticaudata (Common or blue-lipped sea krait) (Attributes)
Laticauda saintgironsi
Laticauda schistorhyncha (Flat-tail Sea Snake) (Attributes)
Laticauda schistorhynchus <Unverified Name> (Vulnerable)
Laticauda semifasciata (Chinese Sea Snake) (Attributes)

External References

Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0