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Definition of Hydrophidae
1. Noun. Sea snakes.
Generic synonyms: Reptile Family
Group relationships: Ophidia, Serpentes, Suborder Ophidia, Suborder Serpentes
Member holonyms: Sea Snake
Medical Definition of Hydrophidae
1. A family of sea 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) (12 Dec 1998)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Hydrophidae
Literary usage of Hydrophidae
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London by Royal Society (Great Britain) (1904)
"... and hydrophidae, so that the amount of venom ejected by them can seldom, if
ever, be more than two or three times a lethal dose for man. ..."
2. Edinburgh Medical Journal (1871)
"In the hydrophidae the male is known from the female by a distinct swelling on
each side of the tail, extending from the root to or beyond the middle of its ..."
3. Elements of Zoölogy: A Textbook by Sanborn Tenney (1875)
"... the posterior parts of the body and tail much compressed, and raised vertically,
thus adapting them for swimming, are called Sea-snakes or hydrophidae. ..."
4. The American Naturalist by American Society of Naturalists, Essex Institute (1897)
"The hydrophidae extend north to Japan, south to Tasmania and New Zealand ; east
to the west-coast of America from Mexico to Ecuador. ..."
5. The Geographical Distribution of Animals: With a Study of the Relations of by Alfred Russel Wallace (1876)
"... and Platurus, a wide-spread genus of sea-snakes (hydrophidae). In the more
remote Sandwich and Society Islands there appear to be no snakes. ..."
6. The Nineteenth Century (1889)
"The hydrophidae have smaller heads, jaws, and fangs than the land snakes; the
fangs have open grooves in some, but not all. The virus is very active, ..."