We give historic adventurer like Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan a caboodle of cite for their extended ocean voyage , but a lilliputian species of venomous ocean snake in the grass may have them tucker . National Geographicreports that , fit in to a late subject field , the seven - ounce yellow - bellied sea snake ( pelamis platura ) may be up to of travel thousands of miles by drifting along ocean currents . The findings were published inThe Royal Society .
Researchers have long been baffled by the geographic dispersal of the yellow - belly out sea snake , which can be establish in tropical pelagic water all over the world . They began to theorize , starting in the 1970s , that the snake could have simply drifted across the ocean from its original home in southeasterly Asia , but were unsuccessful at testing the theory : A scientist who attempted to track close to 100 snakes as they floated across the sea managed to recapture only four .
But now , research worker have successfully modeled the theoretical flight of the sea snakes using a data processor program to feign sea currents . investigator traced the travel of 10,000 virtual serpent released from 28 different land site . They get hold that the snake were theoretically capable of go 20,000 geographical mile or more over the course of ten years .
Of of course , tracking the survival of a computer - generated Hydra is n’t the same as watch the travels of a alive snake first - deal . But researchers now believe it ’s plausible that the yellow - bellied snake , which can hold its breath under water for an amazing three and a half hour , may have simply surfed the waves from its evolutionary birthplace in Southeast Asia to the Americas and Africa . They remark that no other ophidian species has go further . In fact , the Snake River ’s traveling range is closer to that of the average heavyweight than the average Hydra .
[ h / tNational Geographic ]
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