You won’t find this “hisssterical.”
A sea snake, which was so rare scientists believed it was extinct, was recently rediscovered off the coast of Western Australia. According to the Daily Mail, no one has seen this creature for more than two decades.
The snake could be found in the shallow waters at Ashmore Reef, but since the 1970s, the animals made a rare appearance. In 1998, the venomous sea snake “seemingly disappeared.”
During the discovery, scientists were on a research vessel that had “advanced robotic technologies.” While on the trip, researchers were looking at a dead sea shell but then made the shocking discovery, according to Blanche D’Anastasi, a researcher from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
“The robot was looking at a dead shell and [the researchers] were trying to pick it up and it had a sea snake sitting next to it,” D’Anastasi said. “They asked to zoom in on it and they realized straight away it was a short-nosed sea snake.”
D’Anastasi confirmed that scientists used to find 50 snakes per day if people were walking the reef site.
D’Anastasi said that the rediscovery of the snakes has raised questions about its origins.
“Are they part of a breeding population that remained undetected, or are these just straggling individuals that remain following the shallow water extinction event?” she added.
The snake was found in the twilight zone, where some sunlight can still be found.
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