Sea Serpents
Basic Information
Anatomy
Sea serpents are a wide group descended from sea snakes. Like their ancestors, sea serpents' bodies are elongated, possess no true limbs, and are covered in scales. Their mouths are the primary way they interact with their environments, which possess sharp teeth and most often a powerful venom that is injected into prey via the fangs. All sea snakes require air in order to breathe, although most can hold their breaths for up to 2 and a half hours due to their incredibly powerful lung.
Many species of sea serpents can grow to be quite large, with the largest documented of any species being a Crabeater Sea Snake captured in bycatch off the coast of the Republic of California, measured at 14 feet long. Despite officially recorded measurements, it is not uncommon for fishermen to attest to having seen or personally fished up much larger individuals, especially on deep sea fishing vessels. Deep sea species may grow significantly larger than shallow water species due to deep sea gigantism- though most researchers attest that individuals may be mistaking oarfish, eels, or expelled blood eels as sea serpents.
Tooth structure varies greatly within the grouping depending on the diet of the individual species. The majority of sea serpent species feed upon fish, soft-bodied cephalopods, and soft-bodied mollusks and as such typically have a great many long needle-like teeth. Species that feed on tougher prey, such as small sharks, hard-shelled creatures, and even occasionally marine mammals typically have fewer but larger cone shaped teeth suitable for crushing and ripping chunks out of prey. The latter form of sea serpent are typically rear-fanged, injecting venom through teeth found at the back of the mouth.
Genetics and Reproduction
As is the case with sea snakes, sea serpents are ovoviviparous, in which females retain their eggs until they hatch within the body, and then give birth to live young. Newborn sea snakes' first acts of life are to swim for the surface of the water to take their first breaths, and then disperse.
Ecology and Habitats
Sea serpents are typically found in warm mid to shallow water environments near the equator, though some species have been documented in deeper and cooler waters, likely along migration paths. Typically, serpents appear stationary in their home ranges for much of the year, preferring to form burrows in mud, sand, and reef systems where they are easily able to ambush their preferred prey.
Dietary Needs and Habits
All sea serpents are carnivores, though each species has a preferred diet depending on their individual niche. Reef fish are by far the most common prey item among all serpents, making for easily ambushable prey from burrows and crevices, which serpents will bite, entangle, and drag back into a crevice to feed upon. Species that specialize in larger prey have been observed taking part in flesh grazing, in which they bite off chunks of a larger animal they cannot kill, such as sharks, marine mammals, turtles, and occasionally seals or sea lions.
Serpents can be surprisingly fast, which allows them to dart after small fish and flighty prey such as cephalopods with ease. In the majority of species, they prefer smaller but more frequent meals. As opportunistic hunters however, many have been documented to eat anything they are able to fit in their mouths even if it is outside of their normal diet, such as making use of whalefalls, fish and cephalopod eggs, and bait in fish traps, lobstertraps, or from fishermen's lines.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Although not found in the majority of species, many different unrelated groups of sea serpents possess electromagnetic sensing pits along the face and neck. It is believed that this system of organs is the ancestral condition, allowing them to sense prey buried under the substrate.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
It has been documented that sea serpents are not typically competitive with eels when present in the same reef systems and may at times shelter with them in the same burrows. It is believed that serpents do this in order to increase their chances of success, by way of not having additional species to compete with. As serpents typically tackle larger prey than most eels, eels have been found to scavenge on scraps left behind and use serpents to defend their burrows from their own predators.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Origin/Ancestry
Natural
Conservation Status
Variable depending on species
Geographic Distribution
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