Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Elapidae > Oxyuranus > Oxyuranus microlepidotus

Oxyuranus microlepidotus (Fierce Snake, Inland Taipan)

Synonyms: Diemenia ferox; Diemenia microlepidota; Oxyuranus scutellatus microlepidotus

Wikipedia Abstract

The inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), also commonly known as the western taipan, the small-scaled snake, or the fierce snake, is an extremely venomous snake of the taipan (Oxyuranus) genus, and is endemic to semi-arid regions of central east Australia. Aboriginal Australians living in those regions named the snake Dandarabilla. It was first described by Frederick McCoy in 1879 and then by William John Macleay in 1882, but for the next 90 years, it was a mystery species to the scientific community. No more specimens were found, and virtually nothing was added to the knowledge of this species until its rediscovery in 1972.
View Wikipedia Record: Oxyuranus microlepidotus

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  13.464 lbs (6.107 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  22 grams
Egg Length [1]  2.244 inches (57 mm)
Egg Width [1]  1.181 inches (30 mm)
Gestation [1]  69 days
Litter Size [2]  16
Litters / Year [1]  2
Maximum Longevity [1]  16 years
Venomous [3]  Yes
Female Maturity [1]  9 months 24 days
Male Maturity [1]  8 months 18 days

Ecoregions

Prey / Diet

Antechinomys laniger (Kultarr)[2]
Mus musculus (house mouse)[2]
Rattus villosissimus (long-haired rat)[2]

Prey / Diet Overlap

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
2Ecology of Highly Venomous Snakes: the Australian Genus Oxyuranus (Elapidae), RICHARD SHINE AND JEANETTE COVACEVICH, Journal of Herpetology, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 60-69, 1983
3Venomous snakes and antivenoms search interface, World Health Organization
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0