The Marine File Snake is a species of Aquatic snake that can be found throughout much of South-East Asia. Their range extends from India to the Solomon Islands.
These snakes are known by a number of other common names including the Little File Snake and the Little Wart Snake.
Marine File Snake Taxonomy
In the Animal Kingdom, Taxonomy is used as the science and practice of classifying different species and sub-species based on their biological and genetic makeup.
Family
The Marine File Snake belongs to a family of snake called Acrochordidae. This is a family with only one genus associated with it.
The species in this family are aquatic snakes that can be found in the waters of India, South-East Asia and Northern Australia.
This family was just created to house the species of a single genus as these snakes didn’t fit into any other family of snake.
Genus
The genus that the Marine File Snake belongs to is called Acrochordus and there are currently three recognised species in this genus.
These snakes are often referred to as Wart Snakes, Java Wart Snakes, File Snakes or even Elephant Trunk Snakes.
The other two species in the genus are the Elephant Trunk Snake and the Arafura File Snake.
Species
The scientific name for the Marine File Snake is Acrochordus granulatus and there are currently no recognised sub-species.
This species was first described in 1799 by a German naturalist named Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider.
Schneider was also responsible for describing other species including the Florida Softshell Turtle.
Marine File Snake Description
The Marine File Snake is a non-venomous species of aquatic snake. Despite being far smaller than the other species in the Acrochordus genus, they are probably the most stunning species in terms of appearance.
They are typically brownish-grey in color and often have white or yellow stripes. They typically grow to around 3-4 feet in length.
The Marine File Snake is an excellent swimmer and has good ‘predator repelling’ characteristics. They have flat tails and loose skin that allows them to flatten out.
This helps them while swimming and also gives them a similar appearance to extremely deadly sea snakes.
They are known as “file snakes” because of their triangular bodies and keeled scales, which resemble a file. They can grab and constrict their prey thanks to their roughly grained scales.
These snakes also have nostrils on top of their heads, which allows them to breathe without lifting their heads completely out of the water.
Their lungs are more widely spaced than those of land snakes which allows them to spend hours underwater before needing to surface for air.
They are a sexual dimorphic species with females being larger than males. They also have a larger head and a longer, heavier body. This larger size helps with the burden of reproduction.
Natural Habitat and Distribution
The Marine File Snake likes to live in aquatic habitats around the coasts of South-East Asia, Indonesia, northern Australia, and many of the surrounding islands.
These snakes are entirely aquatic, just like the other Acrochordus species. However, these snakes can handle a wide variety of salinities from salt to freshwater while the other species are exclusively freshwater snakes.
These snakes have been found at depths of up to 20m but they usually stay closer to the surface because they frequently need to surface for air.
Marine File Snake Behaviour
The Marine File Snake is a nocturnal species that sleeps during the day in mud piles or among seaweed and spends its nights hunting for prey and swimming.
They can stay underwater for several hours without coming to the surface to breathe. Although file snakes are entirely aquatic, they occasionally venture onto land at high tides to enter small pools of water.
When searching for prey, they can remain completely submerged for extended periods of time and can endure both sluggish and strong currents.