NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Egg-eating Sea Snake
Emydocephalus annulatus Krefft, 1869
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Emydocephalus annulatus, commonly known as the turtleheaded sea snake or egg-eating sea snake, is a species of sea snake that can be found in waters of Oceania near Australia and some Pacific Islands such as the Philippines and the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia. The geographic range is sporadic, for example, with populations distributed near the eastern and western coasts of Australia in the Great Barrier Reef and the Timor Sea reefs, respectively. They do not, however, occur in the Gulf of Carpentaria along the north coast.
Wikipedia contributors, Emydocephalus annulatus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:56:15.029772+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Emydocephalus annulatus Krefft, 1869
- Name authority
- Krefft, 1869
- Common name
- Egg-eating Sea Snake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Elapidae
- Genus
- Emydocephalus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
- infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
- familyElapidae
- subfamilyHydrophiinae
- genusEmydocephalus
- speciesEmydocephalus annulatus Krefft, 1869
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Emydocephalus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Turtlehead Sea SnakeEmydocephalus ijimae Stejneger, 1898 | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Emydocephalus szczerbaki Dotsenko, 2011 Dotsenko, 2011 | synonym |
| Aipysurus chelonicephalus Bavay, 1869 Bavay, 1869 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Emydocephalus&species=annulatus Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:39LSD. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.