Leaf-scaled Sea Snake

The recorded length is around 800 millimetres and coloration is purple brown. A poorly known species, the diet is known to consist of wrasse and gudgeon fish that are pursued through coral outcrops and crevices. Like other sea snakes, it does not have gills and must periodically rise to the surface to breathe air using its lungs.

The distribution range of the species has contracted since its first identification, and is currently known from a declining population inhabiting Shark Bay on the western coast of Australia. The leaf-scaled sea snake prefers waters up to 10 metres in depth. In December 2015 a population of the snakes was found living in seagrass beds of Shark Bay off Western Australia. Previously, its only known habitats were some 1,700 km away in the Ashmore and Hibernia Reefs in the Timor Sea, from where it had since disappeared.