Freaky New Sea Snake Has a Terrifying Hunting Strategy

A new subspecies of ocean Hydra has been strike off the coast of Costa Rica , and it ’s got a unequaled hunting mode that ’s never been see to it before in aquatic reptiles . Hanging from the control surface like a coil spring , it preys upon unsuspicious Pisces as they drown below .

Asdescribedin the skill journal ZooKeys , the ocean Snake River “ opportunistically ” feeds on little fish by hang upside down in a hand-build , or sinusoidal , posture just below the water surface , and it only does so only at dark . It ’s just one of several difference that distinguish it from its close living relative , Hydrophis platurus , a yellow ocean snake that lives about 14 miles off in coolheaded waters . The researchers who guide the depth psychology , Brooke Bessesen from the Phoenix Zoo and Gary Galbreath from Northwestern University , say the freshly discovered snake may actually belong to to an all new coinage of sea snake in the grass , but for now they ’re content to designate it a subspecies , dub Hydrophis platurus xanthos .

This half - metre - long ophidian hold up in the warm and choppy waters of Golfo Dulce in Costa Rica , and it ’s had to adapt to the coarse conditions found there . Water temperatures in this area can reach as high-pitched as 90 degrees F ( 32.6 degree C ) , which is hazardously tightlipped to what sea snakes can endure . What ’s more , these amnionic fluid can become anoxic , where the dissolved oxygen fall to fabulously low stage ( sea Snake pull oxygen from the water through their peel , so anoxic waters could cause them to choke ) .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

But as the new study points out , H. platurus xanthos has evolved several strategies that permit it to survive in these roiled amnionic fluid . In addition to assume its unique ambush strategy ( H. platurus also hunts for fish by floating on the Earth’s surface , but theydon’t gointo the sinusoidal ambush position ) , this sea snake is smaller than its parent species , and it feature a uniform yellowish colour across its body ( by contrast , Hydrophis platurus has some fatal and yellow patterning ) . Its lighter coloring , say the researchers , likely helps with temperature regularization in the tender waters , while the nocturnal hunting strategy allows it to avoid the red-hot day temperature at the surface . These creature spend about 99 per centum of their animation at depth of 65 to 165 human foot ( 20 to 50 meters ) where it ’s much cooler .

Bessesen and Galbreath base their survey on observations made of 154 dissimilar specimen ( 123 free - browse and 21 held in museums ) from 2010 to 2017 . Sadly , these Hydra — which are only being discover now — are already considered endangered . Their district is limit to 123 square miles ( 320 square km ) in an unprotected area . accumulator have already started to poach the sea snakes , and clime change threaten to make turgid swath of sea water too warm for them to survive .

“ Hopefully this globally unequaled population can go on to offer both scientists and conservation - witting tourists a worthy matter of observation and study , ” observe the writer in a press handout .

William Duplessie