Iranian coastal waters: New home to the rarest venomous sea snake

One of the rare world’s sea snakes was seen in the Iranian coastal waters. This species Microcephalophis cantoris distributed from Malay Peninsula to Pakistan, recent year it was recorded near the western Gulf of Oman, says the publication in journal ZooKeys. 

The scientists from researcher centers of France and Iran have registered a new place of habitat for the rare species known as Günther’s sea snake. It has only been recorded from the coastal waters of a few countries in the western Malay Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent, now it lives into Iranian coastal waters.

Scientists from Iran and France are collaborating on a project on the biodiversity of sea snakes in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. A fishing boat caught in Iranian coastal waters off the western Gulf of Oman the adult species of Günther’s sea snake. Now, people can see this rarely seen venomous viviparous sea snake in the Zoological Museum at the Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran.

According to the researchers, nine of 60 living species of highly venomous viviparous sea snakes in the world, recorded from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Günther’s sea snake became a tenth species in this sea region, say biologists.