Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(3): 3192-3196 3192 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.703.369 Heart of Yellow Bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis platurus): A Gross Morphological Study Naveen Jonnalagadda, M.P.S. Tomar * , Satish Putluru, Dharani Palanisamy, Sunil Akula and Venakata P. Tanguturi Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science, Proddatur (Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupati) - Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh) – 516360, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction In many cases, the structural-functional features of the reptilian heart provide adaptive plasticity, allowing for the ecological and behavioral diversity seen. As a result, variation may surface in clinical measures of cardiac performance (Wyneken, 2009). The yellow bellied sea snake is member of subfamily Hydrophiinae and has a wide range of habitat and often seen in ocean drift lines. The habitat includes Indo-pacific which extends to Costa Rica, southern California and northern Peru and they require 16-18 0 C water for optimum survival and propagation. Due to a wide range of distribution it lacks of dispersal barriers and considered as species of least concern in IUCN red list, 2012. Contrary to past belief this species require fresh water to survive and drinks precipitation over the surface of sea water. Sometimes they are trapped in the fisherman’s net and brought to the beaches along with the fishes. Individual of this species are highly poisonous with LD50 = 0.067mg/kg for subcutaneous route and the yield per bite is 1.0-4.0 mg. (www.seanthomas.net). Generally they are considered as docile but are deadly poisonous if exaggerated. They survive in the marine water and for that the salt excreting gland International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 03 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Present investigation was carried out on a single specimen of heart of yellow bellied sea snake, which accidentally came to the sea shore with the fisherman’s net. Since this snake is found in approximately 100m. deep sea thus not very common to cite and study. After the death this specimens was preserved in 10% neutral buffered formalin and observed for its morphology. The literature cited revealed that meager information was available on the anatomy of heart of this species of snake thus present study was planned on the gross anatomy of the heart of yellow bellied sea snake. The heart was three chambered with the complete division of atria but the ventricular cavity was incompletely divided. The sinus venosus was the common cavity for confluence of anterior and posterior vana cava and the jugular vein was opened with anterior vena cava. Pulmonary vein was single which later divided in to two branches. The length-width index for the atria was 1.33 whereas it was 1.67 for the ventricle. Keywords Aorta, Atrium, Heart, Sea snake, Sinus venosus, Ventricle Accepted: 26 February 2018 Available Online: 10 March 2018 Article Info