Coastal Taipan Natural History Illustrations and Photographs

Summary: Coastal taipan natural history illustrations and photographs give behaviors, distributions and physiques of the world's third or fourth most venomous snake.

coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) in Cooktown, Cape York Peninsula, Far North Queensland, northeastern Australia; February 1980; John Wombey, CSIRO, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Endemic Australian and New Guinean coastal taipan natural history illustrations and photographs acknowledge the world's third or fourth most venomous snake, after inland taipans, eastern brown snakes and possibly Central Ranges taipans.

Taipan venom, with 0.0042- to 0.0141-ounce (120- to 400-milligram) maximums per bite, without countermeasures, brings death within one-half to two hours of injection into victim bloodstreams. Coastal taipans constitute the first-discovered of the three most venomous, taipan species in the Elapidae subtropical and tropical venomous sea-fish (ἔλαψ, élaps) serpent (Ἔλλοψ, Éllops) family. Their scientific name Oxyuranus scutellatus (from the Greek ὀξύς, óxús, "pointed" and οὐρά, ourá, "tail"; and Latin -ānus, "possessing" and scutellātus, "shielded"), distinguishes plated, pointed tails.

Coastal taipans exist in New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia and, as George Cann's (1967-Aug. 22, 1965) subspecies, in Irian Jaya, New Guinea.

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

July through October matings generate 3- to 21-egg August- through November-gestated clutches September through March and 11.81- to 23.62-inch (30- to 60-centimeter) hatchlings November through June. Adults with 4- to 11-foot (1.22- to 3.3-meter) head-body-tail lengths have big, narrow, rectangular heads that hint of evolutionarily convergent African black mambas with coffin-shaped heads. Convergent evolution indicates the almost or quite identical behavioral patterns, life cycles and physical appearances of black mambos and coastal taipans despite far-apart, non-overlapping distribution ranges.

Coastal taipan natural history illustrations and photographs juggle heads raised above ground-level, to judge predator, prey and shelter whereabouts, atop slender necks to strong, sturdy bodies.

Coastal taipans keep their angular-browed, light-faced heads angled between the horizontal and the vertical for big, hazel to light brown, keen-sighted, round eyes with big pupils.

Hollow fangs maximally 0.52 inches (13 millimeters) long loosen into bloodstreams the neurotoxin taipoxin that leads to bleeding, clots, convulsions, kidney and muscle damage and paralysis. Coastal taipans maintain immobile postures until they move, hurtlingly and swiftly, at the most accessible, bitable, vulnerable parts of bandicoot and rat prey and of predators. Coastal taipans, named in 1867 by Wilhelm Peters (April 22, 1815-April 20, 1883) and 1956 by Kenneth Slater (June 22, 1923-Aug. 15, 1999), net variable colors.

Coastal taipan natural history illustrations and photographs observe summer-faded, winter-darkened black, black-gray, olive or red-brown upper-sides, orange- or pink-flecked white or yellow bellies and white-yellow sides.

Australia's Oxyuranus scutellatus scutellatus and New Guinea's Oxyuranus scutellatus canni subspecies possess 21 to 23 dorsal, 45 to 80 subcaudal and 220 to 250 ventral scales.

Taipans, day-active into mid-morning or, during heat waves, night-active, queue up for 31.49-plus-inch (800-plus-millimeter) annual rainfall and winter temperatures above 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). Coastal taipan habitat niches range from non-native lantana thickets to disturbed wastelands; grazing paddocks; monsoon, temperate and tropical continental wet forests; natural grasslands; and sugarcane fields. Abandoned burrows, hollow logs, litter piles and overgrown vegetation shelter coastal taipans in dry and wet sclerophyll (σκληρός, sklērós and φύλλον, phúllon, "hard-leaved") forests and woodlands.

Coastal taipan natural history illustrations and photographs tender, without the threat of toxicity, the behavioral patterns, distribution ranges and physical appearances of Australia's largest venomous animal.

geographical distribution of coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus): RedGKS, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, 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:

coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) in Cooktown, Cape York Peninsula, Far North Queensland, northeastern Australia; February 1980; John Wombey, CSIRO, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_3625_Taipan.jpg

geographical distribution of coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus): RedGKS, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oxyuranus_scutellatus_range.png

For further information:

Barber, Carmel M.; Frank Madaras; Richard K. Turnbull; Terry Morley; Nathan Dunstan; Luke Allen; Tim Kuchel; Peter Mirtschin; and Wayne C. Hodgson. July 2014. "Comparative Studies of the Venom of a New Taipan Species, Oxyuranus temporalis, with Other Members of Its Genus." Toxins, vol. 6, issue 7 (July 2014): 1979-1995.
Available via National Center for Biotechnology Information @ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4113736/

Fohlman, Jan; David Eaker; Evert Karlsson; and Stephen Thesleff. 1976. "Taipoxin, an Extremely Potent Presynaptic Neurotoxin from the Venom of the Australian Snake Taipan (Oxuranus s. scutellatus): Isolation, Characterization, Quaternary Structure and Pharmacological Properties." European Journal of Biochemistry, vol. 68, issue 2 (September 1976): 457-469.
Available @ https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1976.tb10833.x

Keogh, J. Scott. "Taipan Oxyuranus scutellatus." In: Michael Hutchins, James B. Murphy and Neil Schlager, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 7, Reptiles: 496. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Peters, W. [Wilhelm Karl Hartwig]. November 1867. "Über Flederthiere (Pteropus Gouldii, Rhinolophus Deckenii, Vespertilio lobipes, Vesperugo Temminckii) und Amphibien (Hypsilurus Godeffroyi, Lygosoma scutatum, Stenostoma narirostre, Onychocephalus unguirostris, Ahaetulla polylepis, Pseudechis scutellatus, Hoplobatrachus Reinhardtii, Hyla coriacea): 6. Pseudechis scutellatus n. sp." Monatsberichte der Königlich-Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. November 1867: 710-711.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/monatsberichtede1867knig#page/710/mode/1up

Rooij, Nelly de. 1917. "3. Pseudechis scutellatus Peters." The Reptiles of the Indo-Australian Archipelago, Vol. II Ophidia: 269-270. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill Ltd. Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4133427

Slater, K.R. [Kenneth R.]. January 1956. "On the New Guinea Taipan." Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria Melbourne, no. 20: 201-215.
Available @ https://archive.org/stream/MemoirsNational20Nati#page/201/mode/1up

Uetz, Peter. "Oxyuranus scutellatus Peters, 1867." The Reptile Database.
Available @ http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Oxyuranus&species=scutellatus