Gunther's sea snake (Microcephalophis cantoris) is a very rare venomous snake with a distribution that is believed to be evolving from the Malay Peninsula to Pakistan, and has been recorded from Iranian coastal waters towards the western Gulf of Oman.
Albert Gunter, a German zoologist who lived in the UK in the 19th century, discovered the new species of venomous viviparous (giving live birth) sea snakes. The animal is famous for its disproportionately small head, and has only been seen around the coastal waters of some countries in the western Malay Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent.
A series of field surveys carried out in 2013 and 2014 aimed to establish a comprehensive sampling of the sea snakes in the Persian Gulf, and a new paper completed and updated the checklist along with the identification tool for the animals, based on new literature reviews and advances. Of the species of marine hydrophiines, the Gunter sea snake represents a novel discovery in the area.
The specimens identified and analyzed as part of the study can be visited at the Zoological Museum of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran.
Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour, Parviz Ghezellou, Nicolas Vidal and Iranian fellows Majid Askari Hesni, Seyyed Mohammad Hashem Dakhteh, and Hooman Ahmadian have developed the paper as a collaboration on a biodiversity project of sea snakes in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
As part of the survey, an adult Gunter specimen was caught in the Iranian coastal waters, which is the first record of the rare animal in that geographic area. Following the results of their discoveries, the team published the updated checklist in the journal ZooKeys, an open access paper.
Approximately 60 species of the venomous viviparous sea snakes can be spotted worldwide. Their distribution in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific region makes it harder to visit the exhibits in the nearby Natural Museums. However, as a result of this new specimen spotted in the Iranian coastal waters, the species total 10 different sea snakes in the area.
All the sea snakes of the subfamily Hydrophiinae have a common ancestor, taking them back to almost 6 million years, and most of the extant lineages underwent diversification in the last 3.5 million years. The animals colonize distinct coastal habitats that are part of their geographic range, playing an important role in the ecosystems they populate.
The reason why these snakes represent such a subject of interest for many researchers in the field is that, besides their belonging to the sea species, they present extraordinary capacities when it comes to adaptive responses to fluctuating temperatures and different degrees of salinity.
