The Central Ranges taipan, or Western Desert taipan (''Oxyuranus temporalis''), is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

taipan Taipans are snakes of the genus ''Oxyuranus'' in the elapid family. They are large, fast-moving, highly venomous, and endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Three species are recognised, one of which, the coastal taipan, has two subspecies. Taipan ...

that was described in 2007 by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n researchers Paul Doughty, Brad Maryan, Stephen Donnellan, and Mark Hutchinson. Taipans are large, fast, extremely

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

s. The Central Ranges taipan was named one of the top-five new species of 2007 by the

International Institute for Species Exploration The International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) is a research institute located in Syracuse, New York. Its mission is to improve taxonomical exploration and the cataloging of new species of flora and fauna. Since 2008, IISE has publ ...

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

.Top 10 new species of 2008: ''Oxyuranus temporalis''.
International Institute for Species Exploration. Arizona State University.

Discovery

Dr. Mark Hutchinson,

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

and

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

curator at the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

, caught the immature female taipan while it was crossing a dirt track on a sunny afternoon. The reptile was about 1.0 m (39 inches) in total length (body and tail), but because taipan species are among the most venomous snakes in the world, Hutchinson did not inspect the creature on site. He bagged the snake and sent it, along with others captured from the trip, to the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

for closer inspection. Two weeks later, the new species was studied. At first, it was tentatively identified as a western brown snake because of the similar size and colouring; several weeks later, however, Western Australia Museum reptile collection manager Brad Maryan noticed the now-preserved snake had a large, pale head similar to the coastal taipan. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

, nicknamed " Scully" after the '' X-Files'' TV character, is an immature snake about 1 m long, which means that scientists do not know the true adult size of the species, though some taipans can reach a total length of about 3 m (about 10 ft). This is the first new taipan species to be discovered in 125 years.

New species

''O. temporalis'' differs from its two

congeneric Congener may refer to: * A thing or person of the same kind as another, or of the same group. * Congener (biology), organisms within the same genus. * Congener (chemistry), related chemicals, e.g., elements in the same group of the periodic table. ...

species '' O. scutellatus'' and '' O. microlepidotus'' in lacking a temporolabial scale and having six rather than seven

infralabial scales In reptiles, the sublabial scales, also called lower-labials or infralabials, are those scales that border the mouth opening along the lower jaw. They do not include the median scaleWright AH, Wright AA. 1957. ''Handbook of Snakes''. Comstock Publis ...

. Phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA sequences showed it to be the sister species of the two previously known taipans.

Venom

The two other described species of ''Oxyuranus'' are among the most venomous land snakes in the world - ''O. microlepidotus'' ranked the most venomous land snake and ''O. scutellatus'' the third-most venomous after ''

Pseudonaja textilis The eastern brown snake (''Pseudonaja textilis''), often referred to as the common brown snake, is a species of highly venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to eastern and central Australia and southern New Guinea. It was ...

''. The new species, ''O. temporalis'', has a measured on mice to be 0.075 mg/Kg, making it likely to be extremely dangerous to a human if bitten, albeit less toxic than the inland taipan, which was found by the same study to have a of 0.0225 mg/Kg.Carmel M. Barber, Frank Madaras, Richard K. Turnbull, Terry Morley, Nathan Dunstan, Luke Allen, Tim Kuchel, Peter Mirtschin and Wayne C. Hodgson 2014. Comparative Studies of the Venom of a New Taipan Species, Oxyuranus temporalis, with Other Members of Its Genus. Toxins Vol. 6

2010 Rediscovery

In May 2010, a second specimen of ''O. temporalis'' was found in the

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross th ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The adult female taipan measuring in total length was captured by the

Spinifex people The Pila Nguru, often referred to in English as the Spinifex people, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia, whose lands extend to the border with South Australia and to the north of the Nullarbor Plain. The centre of their h ...

from the Tjuntjuntjara Aboriginal community during a biological study at Ilkurlka, 165 km west of the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n border, 425 km south of the location of the initial discovery.

References

External links

The Top 10 New Species of 2007

{{Taxonbar, from=Q310151 Oxyuranus Reptiles of Western Australia Reptiles described in 2007 Snakes of Australia