Oxyuranus
Sign in to saveTaipans are snakes of the genus Oxyuranus in the elapid family. They are large, fast-moving, extremely venomous, and endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Three species are recognised, one of which, the coastal taipan, has two subspecies. Taipans are some of the deadliest known snakes.
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Species
- Diet
- Venom
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Taipans are snakes of the genus Oxyuranus in the elapid family. They are large, fast-moving, extremely venomous, and endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Three species are recognised, one of which, the coastal taipan, has two subspecies. Taipans are some of the deadliest known snakes.
==Taxonomy== The common name, taipan, was coined by anthropologist Donald Thomson after the word used by the Wik-Mungkan Aboriginal people of central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. The Wik-Mungkan people used the name in reference to an ancestral creator being in Aboriginal Australian mythology known as the Rainbow Serpent.