Classification

   Domain - Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class - Reptilia
Order - Squamata
Family - Hydrophiidae
Genus - Enhydrina
Species - E. schistosa

 Common Name: Beaked Sea Snake
The snake received the common name Beaked sea snake because of the downturned, beak-like projection on the snout at the front of the jaw.

Domain: Eukarya
The beaked sea snake falls under this domain because the organism possesses a complex cells with membrane bounded organelles and also contains genetic material in the cell's nucleus. (Examples: range from plants like Sunflowers and animals like Jellyfishes)

 Kingdom: Animalia
This organism is part of the kingdom Animalia because it's heterotrophic and lacks a cell wall. The organism also possesses tissue. (Examples: are like your everyday animals such as Honeybees  and Zebras)

 Phylum: Chordata
The snake falls in this phylum because it possess: a dorsal nerve chord, flexible notochord, pharyngeal gill slits, and an endostyle at some point in its life history.  Organisms in this phylum are also triploblast and have a endoskeleton.( Examples: animals like Gorillas and Red tailed hawks)

 Class: Reptilia
Formally known as reptiles, organisms in this class lay amniotic eggs (that allowed them to lay eggs outside of water) and have keratinized scales.( Examples: are the American alligator and Frilled Neck Lizard)

 Order: Squamata
Reptiles, like the beaked sea snake, have skins with horny scales or shields. They also possess powerful hinge jaws called quadrate hinge.  This jaw allows the organism to open their mouth very wide to consume prey whole.(Examples: are lizards and snakes, such as Texas Horned Lizard and the Paradise Tree snake)

 Family: Hydrophiidae
Members of this family, are venomous snakes who live most of their lives in marine environment.  Most are so adapted to life in water, that they are not able to survive or move on land. Beaked sea snakes can be found outside of water, but never go to far away from it.

 Genus: Enhydrina
Snakes from this genus are known for having extremely long and narrowed mental scale that is concealed  in a deep notch between the lower jaws. Enhydrina translates to "little water snake" in Greek.

This phylogenetic trees shows that Enhydrina schistosa is actually two separate species. The two species seem similar due to the fact they settled in the same environments. This is an example of convergent  evolution.  Read more about this recent discovery on the Facts page.

In this phylogentic tree the scientist used DNA extracted from the liver and muscle tissue.  They sequenced a total of 5243 base pairs from three mitochondrial and four nuclear markers. The tree on the left shows that the two species were not monophyletic due to the findings in the DNA sequencing.  But earlier in research it was thought that the two species were monophyletic with a common ancestor of the Asian taxa Hydrophis caerulescen. The analyses of the mtDNA strongly rejected the relationship and rejected the idea that both species were monophyletic. The tree below was a earlier tree that show that the two species from Asia and    Australia were non- monophyltic.

 

Continue to learn about the Habitat of the sea snake.

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