This sea snake looks like a banana and hunts like a Slinky
The canary yellow reptile lives in the sea off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica
By
Bethany Brookshire
12:00pm, September 1, 2017
With its bright hue, this snake was bound to stand out sooner or later.
A newly discovered subspecies of sea snake, Hydrophis platurus xanthos, has a narrow geographic range and an unusual hunting trick. The canary-yellow reptile hunts at night in Golfo Dulce off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. With its body coiled up at the sea surface, the snake points its head under the water, mouth open. That folded posture “creates a buoy” that stabilizes the snake so it can nab prey in choppy water, says study coauthor Brooke Bessesen, a conservation biologist at Osa Conservation, a biodiversity-focused nonprofit in Washington, D.C. In contrast, typical Hydrophis platurus, with a black back and yellow underbelly, hunts during the day, floating straight on calm seas.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sea-snake-looks-banana-and-hunts-slinky
