Ep 55 Sea Snakes: How Snakes Conquered the Ocean | Professor Kate Sanders

Professor Kate Sanders has built her career trying to understand one of the ocean’s most fascinating and misunderstood groups of animals: sea snakes. Based at Adelaide University, Kate’s research explores their evolution, diversity, sensory biology and conservation, helping uncover how snakes made the extraordinary transition from life on land to becoming fully marine predators. Sea snakes evolved relatively recently, yet have developed an incredible suite of adaptations for life underwater. Kurt and Kate explore how they breathe, dive, hunt, reproduce and experience their underwater environment, including their elongated lungs, ability to absorb some oxygen through their skin and the sensory systems that allow them to detect the world around them. The conversation also dives into some of the stranger sides of sea snake biology, from species with highly specialised diets to snakes living and hunting at surprising depths, and how quickly evolutionary changes can occur. But there is also a worrying side to the story. Some sea snake populations have disappeared from places where they were once abundant. Kate discusses the unexplained declines at locations such as Ashmore Reef, the critically endangered short-nosed sea snake, fisheries bycatch, climate pressures and why simply finding and monitoring these animals can be so difficult. They also explore new tools such as environmental DNA, and what sea snake evolution might teach us about how species respond to a rapidly changing ocean. For an animal often reduced to little more than its venom, sea snakes have an extraordinary evolutionary story that we are still only beginning to understand. Host: Kurt Krispyn Guest: Professor Kate Sanders, Adelaide University Podcast: Paramount Importance If you enjoyed the conversation, like the video, subscribe to Paramount Importance and turn on notifications for future episodes.