Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle bomb here. Every so often, yellow
Speaker 1: bellied sea snakes tie themselves in knots, but they, like
Speaker 1: all servants, must regularly shed their skin. But the process
Speaker 1: demands friction, and in the open sea it can be
Speaker 1: hard to find a rock or reef to rub up against,
Speaker 1: So the animals play contortionist twisting coils around coils, they
Speaker 1: peel off old skin in an acrobatic looping maneuver. The
Speaker 1: exercise has a nice side effect. Barnacles, oysters and other
Speaker 1: tiny hitchhikers plague these snakes. To frequent sheds help keep
Speaker 1: their numbers down. If you're an armless, legless air breather,
Speaker 1: life in the ocean is fraught with challenges, yet the
Speaker 1: fifty plus sea snake species alive today use all kinds
Speaker 1: of amazing tricks to get by. A snake at sea
Speaker 1: is not automatically a sea snake. Lots of unrelated species
Speaker 1: frolic in our oceans from time to time. Reticulated pythons,
Speaker 1: for example, will swim between islands along the coasts of
Speaker 1: southeastern Asia, crossing distances that could wear out an Olympian
Speaker 1: That doesn't, however, make them sea snakes. When naturalists talk
Speaker 1: about sea snakes, they're usually referring to two very specific
Speaker 1: groups of reptiles that are part of the Cobra family,
Speaker 1: true sea snakes genus name Hydrophenia and sea krits or
Speaker 1: lat cottona. We've already mentioned one of the former species,
Speaker 1: yellow bellied sea snakes. Those oddball not tires are classic
Speaker 1: hydro feads. True sea snakes like these have sworn off
Speaker 1: of dry land altogether. Fully marine, they give birth to
Speaker 1: live young at sea. Terrestrial births just aren't an option.
Speaker 1: Hydro Feeds never ex the water voluntarily because they lack
Speaker 1: the wide belly scales that other snakes used to crawl
Speaker 1: over solid ground. Drop one on a beach in a
Speaker 1: poor creature would struggle to move under its own power.
Speaker 1: Sea krates are a bit less streamlined, but they're more
Speaker 1: competent on land. They mate, shed and digest some of
Speaker 1: their meals outside the water. Equipped with the requisite belly scales,
Speaker 1: the animals are free to hit the turf, and like
Speaker 1: sea turtles, they lay eggs in beachside nests. But the
Speaker 1: similarities between these groups far outweigh their differences. All sea
Speaker 1: krets and true sea snakes have paddle shaped tails that
Speaker 1: help them zip through the water. They're also venomous, but
Speaker 1: seldom kill human beings. The animals tend to be docile
Speaker 1: around people, and bites usually only happen when a snake
Speaker 1: feels trapped and stressed out. One banded sea kright fatally
Speaker 1: bit a man after a fishing net ensnared it. Most
Speaker 1: sea snakes inject their venom through hollow fangs at the
Speaker 1: front of their mouth rather than waste its ammo. A
Speaker 1: frightened sea snake will often administer dry bites striking its
Speaker 1: foe without releasing pressure venom, but give them a wide
Speaker 1: berth just to be safe. Neurotoxins in sea snake venoms
Speaker 1: attack the victim's nervous system. Paralysis, spasms, and respiratory problems
Speaker 1: may occur as the chemicals do their work. Fish are
Speaker 1: the main food source for the vast majority of species.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it pays to let dinner come to you. The
Speaker 1: yellow bellied sea snake lies motionless at the ocean's surface,
Speaker 1: waiting for careless fish to take refuge under its coils
Speaker 1: before grabbing them. Other sea snakes drag fish out of
Speaker 1: the cracks and crevices and coral reefs. Such hiding places
Speaker 1: are frequented by eels, the banded seacrite's favorite prey, while
Speaker 1: more rays can be dangerous. Game chrits immobilize them with
Speaker 1: venom and then swallow the creatures whole. A few species,
Speaker 1: like the spine tailed sea snake, eat only fish eggs.
Speaker 1: These specialists have tiny fangs, and some have exceptionally weak venom.
Speaker 1: Caviar can't swim away, so there's no need to give
Speaker 1: it paralysis, but let a. Cattids and hydro feeds can't
Speaker 1: drink sea water, so they need to keep hydrated by
Speaker 1: other means. Sea krites have been observed licking fresh water
Speaker 1: droplets off of plant leaves when they come ashore and
Speaker 1: after storm. They sometimes gather on islands to drink from puddles.
Speaker 1: When it rains over the ocean, an interesting phenomenon occurs.
Speaker 1: New fallen drops congregate at the surface to form a
Speaker 1: temporary and drinkable lens of fresh water. Yellow bellied sea
Speaker 1: snakes use those lenses to quench their thirst, zeroing in
Speaker 1: before the rainwater gets inundated with too much salt. Both
Speaker 1: seacrites and true sea snakes have valves that can seal
Speaker 1: off their nostrils and keep out water during dives. Some
Speaker 1: species are known to stay underwater for three and a
Speaker 1: half hours on end. None of these guys possess gills, though.
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, researchers learned that the blue banded sea snake,
Speaker 1: a true species, uses intricate blood vessels on its head
Speaker 1: to pull oxygen straight out of the water. Not a
Speaker 1: bad superpower. Sharks, crocodiles, and some birds of prey will
Speaker 1: all eat sea snakes if given the chance to confuse attackers.
Speaker 1: The yellow lipped seacrite has evolved deceptive markings that make
Speaker 1: the end of its tail look like a second head.
Speaker 1: Pollution is another big threat, especially to snakes who swim
Speaker 1: and feed near industrial sites. Long before humans started contaminating things,
Speaker 1: sea snakes had spread out across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Speaker 1: Two landlocked lakes in the South Pacific have their own
Speaker 1: resident species as well, just don't bother looking for them.
Speaker 1: In the Atlantic, Earth's second biggest ocean, is free of
Speaker 1: all sea snakes. Geography and climate may explain why the
Speaker 1: scientists think that the reptiles ancestors evolved in the Western
Speaker 1: Pacific six to eight million years ago. By the time
Speaker 1: modern species reached the America's the Panama land Bridge between
Speaker 1: North and South America might have already closed up and
Speaker 1: cold water kills sea snakes so that have been unable
Speaker 1: to swim around South America's Cape Horn. Meanwhile, Africa's southeastern
Speaker 1: coast gets very little rainfall. Any sea snake foolish enough
Speaker 1: to hang out there would have had a difficult time
Speaker 1: staying hydrated. Even survivalists do have their limitations. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clay.
Speaker 1: For more on this lots of other curious topics, visit
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a production
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