Australian Inland Taipans: Reclusive But Deadliest of All World Snakes

Summary: Oxyuranus microlepidotus natural history illustrations get western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce, inland taipan images as the world's most venomous snake.

western taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), under synonym Diemenia microlepidota; fig. 2 (lower left) under side of head and neck (lower left: fig. 2) and upper side of head (upper right: fig. 2a) of large dark specimen; head (upper right: fig. 3) and under side of base of tail (fig. 3a) of small specimen; drawn by English-born Australian natural history illustrator Arthur Bartholomew (Dec. 3, 1833-Aug. 19, 1909); F. McCoy's Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria (1879), decade III, Plate 23, opposite page 11: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce and inland taipans all are names for one reclusive reptile that appears atop lists of Australia's and the world's deadliest, most venomous snakes and that appreciates mammalian prey.

Inland taipans bear their common names because of augmented venomousness; Australian interior biogeographies; basic ground cover; minimum-sized body armor; and Queensland and South Australia distribution ranges. Their scientific name Oxyuranus microlepidotus coordinates the Greek ὀξύς, óxús, "pointed" and οὐρά, ourá, "tail"; Latin -ānus, "possessing"; Greek μικρός, mikrós, "small" and λεπίς, lepís, "scale." Scientific descriptions in 1879 and 1882 by Sir Frederick McCoy (1817-May 1, 1899) and Sir William John Macleay (June 13, 1820-Dec. 7, 1891) dominate current taxonomies.

Western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce, inland taipans exist endemically on and under black-soil, cracking-clay, cracking-loam, rocky, semi-arid plains in the central-east states of Queensland and South Australia.

The term taipan ("snake") filters in, through Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson (June 26, 1901-May 12, 1970), from the Wik-Mungkan aboriginal language of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland.

The Elapsidae (from the Greek ἔλαψ, élaps, "sea-fish" and Ἔλλοψ, Éllops, "serpent") family female member gestates one to two 12- to 24-egg clutches from mid-November onward. Temperatures between 80.6 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (27 and 30 degrees Celsius) hatch the 2.36- by 1.38-inch (6- by 3.5-centimeter) eggs within 9 to 11 weeks. The 18.5-inch- (47-centimeter-) long hatchlings inhabit the abandoned animal burrows and cracked, creviced natural holes that insulate eggs, juveniles and adults against colder and hotter temperatures.

Inland taipans journey around chenopods (from Greek χήν, khén, "goose" and πούς, poús, "foot"), eucalypts and lignum (Muehlenbeckia florulenta) more sustainably in South Australia than Queensland.

Western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce, inland taipans keep heads between the horizontal and vertical for big, black-brown, keen-sighted, round-pupiled eyes to know predatory, prey and shelter whereabouts.

Hollow 0.14- to 0.25-inch- (3.5- to 6.2-millimeter-) long fangs loosen into mammalian bloodstreams world-lethalest absorption-accelerating hyaluronidases, muscle-necrotizing myotoxins, nervous system-sabotaging neurotoxins and red blood cell-savaging hemotoxins. They make for a favorite, quick meal of house (Mus musculus) and jumping-beak (Antechinomys laniger) mice and long-haired (Rattus villosissimus) and plains (Pseudomys australis) rat prey. Predatory monitor lizards (Varanus giganteus) and mulga snakes (Pseudechis australis) necessitate quick-retreat early morning and afternoon basking and hunting during 15- to 20-year reclusive life cycles.

Western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce, inland taipans observe thermoregulation as internal temperature control of cylindrical, semi-stout, short-headed, short-tailed, summer-greened, winter-browned bodies and of slender, summer-browned, winter-blackened necks.

Western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce, inland taipan fangs' 0.0016- to 0.0039-ounce (44- to 110-milligram) maximum venom per bite proves mortal within 30 to 45 minutes without antivenom.

Western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce, inland taipans queue up 1.75-plus-inch- (4.44-plus-centimeter-), 57- to 98.4-inch- (144.78 to 249.94-centimeter-) snout-vent and 7.5- to 12-plus-inch- (19.05- to 30.48-plus-centimeter-) tail lengths. They reveal 30 to 36 neck, 23 middle, 232 to 237 black-gray-blotched and edged ventral, one undivided anal, 60 to 66 subcaudal and 17 tail-base scales. Their black-brown-topped, gray-white-yellow-bottomed, black-brown-gray-tailed bodies with broad, depressed, glossy, round-muzzled heads and dual-fanged, sharp-toothed mouths never show up any more in New South Wales and Victoria.

Macleay descriptions termed the third-collected specimen of western, small-scaled, lignum, fierce, inland taipans "the most formidable looking of all the venomous Australian snakes I have seen."

range of fierce snake (Oxyuranus microlepidotus): Taipan198, CC BY SA 2.5 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

western taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), under synonym Diemenia microlepidota; fig. 2 (lower left) under side of head and neck (lower left: fig. 2) and upper side of head (upper right: fig. 2a) of large dark specimen; head (upper right: fig. 3) and under side of base of tail (fig. 3a) of small specimen; drawn by English-born Australian natural history illustrator Arthur Bartholomew (Dec. 3, 1833-Aug. 19, 1909), lithograph plates by Swiss-born Australian lithographer and printmaker Frederick Schoenfeld (ca. 1810-April 21, 1868); F. McCoy's Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria (1879), decade III, Plate 23, opposite page 11: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5221170; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary, Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/29434234711/

range of fierce snake (Oxyuranus microlepidotus): Taipan198, CC BY SA 2.5 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fierce_Snake_Range.jpg

For further information:

Keogh, J. Scott. "Cobras, Kraits, Seasnakes, Death Adders, and Relatives (Elapidae)." In: Michael Hutchins, James B. Murphy and Neil Schlager, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 7, Reptiles: 483-488. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Macleay, William. 1882. "Description of Two New Species of Snakes." The Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. VI, part IV (papers read Nov. 30, 1881): 811-813. Sydney, Australia: F.W. White.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3343925

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 July 2014. "Coastal Taipan Natural History Illustrations and Photographs." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/07/coastal-taipan-natural-history.html

McCoy, Frederick. 1879. "Plate 23, Figs. 2 and 3. Diemenia Microlepidota (McCoy). Small-Scaled Brown Snake." Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria; Figures and Descriptions of the Living Species of All Classes of the Victorian Indigenous Animals I. Decade III: 12-13. Natural History of Victoria. Melbourne, Australia: By authority: John Ferres, government printer; Published by George Robertson; London, England: Trübner and Co.; and George Robertson, M.DCCC.LXXIX.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5221172
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof11885mcco/page/n151

Uetz, Peter. "Oxyuranus microlepidotus (McCoy, 1879)." The Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Oxyuranus&species=microlepidotus