Organisms

Hydrophiidae

A subfamily of marine elapid snakes comprising about 50 species with flattened oar-like tails used as sculls. They are found mostly in the coastal waters of south Asia and Australia. The largest reach a length of almost 9 feet but most species are only about a third as long. They are all venomous. (Goin, Goin, and Zug, Introduction to Herpetology, 3d ed, pp331-3; Moore: Poisonous Snakes of the World, 1980, p159)

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

A subfamily of marine elapid snakes comprising about 50 species with flattened oar-like tails used as sculls. They are found mostly in the coastal waters of south Asia and Australia. The largest reach a length of almost 9 feet but most species are only about a third as long. They are all venomous. (Goin, Goin, and Zug, Introduction to Herpetology, 3d ed, pp331-3; Moore: Poisonous Snakes of the World, 1980, p159)

MeSH Record

Classification

Broader headings

Related Concepts

Knowledge Graph

Loading graph…

Drag nodes to rearrange; hover to trace links; click a node to open its page.

MeSH Record

See Also

MeSH Record

Synonyms

6 entry terms
  • Hydrophidae
  • Hydrophiinae
  • Sea Snakes
  • Sea Snake
  • Snake, Sea
  • Aipysurus

MeSH Record

Aspects Covered

17 allowable subheadings

Indexed with the subheadings abnormalities, anatomy & histology, blood, cerebrospinal fluid, classification, embryology, genetics, growth & development, immunology, injuries, metabolism, microbiology, parasitology, physiology, surgery, urine, virology.

MeSH Record

History Note

2018; use ELAPIDAE 1994-2017

MeSH Record

Previous Indexing

  • Elapid Venoms (1978-2017)
  • Elapidae (1994-2017)

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Numbers

  1. B01w.050w.050.286.875w.750w.564
  2. B01w.050w.150w.900w.833w.672w.125w.875w.564
  3. B01w.050w.150w.900w.833w.672w.562w.750w.564

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Hydrophiidae. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D000073180. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D000073180
  2. Hydrophiidae. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q44512085