Written by Carmelo Amalfi Monday, 12 March 2007 05:33
REPTILE experts from the WA Museum have discovered a female taipan new to science living in the remote central ranges of outback WA.
The other two species of taipan are found either on the northern and southern coasts of Australia or in the channel country of Queensland and South Australia.
WA Museum herpetologist Paul Doughty said the latest snake find about 200km northwest of Uluru, near the South Australian and Northern Territory borders, was unexpected.
"Taipans are only found in Australia and New Guinea and this is the first new species to be described in more than 125 years," he said. "Australia has the world's most deadly snakes of which the taipans are the most charismatic and notorious."
Dr Doughty has been working on the first scientific inventory of the animal and plant species of the remote Walter James Range region of WA with the South Australian Museum, WA Department of Environment and Conservation, representatives of Ngaanyatjarra Council and traditional owners from the Tjukurla and Warakurna communities.
South Australian Museum biologist Dr Mark Hutchinson caught the taipan during the biodiversity survey in October last year as it was crossing a dirt track on a sunny afternoon.
At first, it was tentatively identified as a western brown snake because of the similar size and colouring. However, several weeks later, WA Museum reptile collection manager Brad Maryan noticed the now preserved snake had a large, pale head similar to the coastal taipan.
Molecular genetic analyses places the new species as the sister lineage of the two described Oxyuranus species, with all three species united by a long branch that also separates them from the nearest of the brown snakes species (Pseudonaja) to which the taipans are close relatives."
The two described species of Oxyuranus are among the most venomous snakes in the world - O. microlepidotus ranked the most and O. scutellatus, the third most venomous after Pseudonaja textilis.
"The Central Ranges Taipan or Oxyuranus temporalis is likely to be extremely venomous given its close relationship to the other two species - but we won't know just how venomous until more of them are caught and the venom tested," Dr Doughty said. No other central desert taipans have yet been caught.
"Scully" is an immature snake about a metre long, which means scientists do not know the true adult size of the species, though some taipans can reach lengths of about three metres.
Apart from some mammal fur found in its stomach, very little is known about the species - including its ecology, behaviour and reproduction.
"The central deserts and ranges are among the most biologically unknown regions of the continent - if a large, active snake such as the central ranges taipan has not been discovered until now, who knows what the next biological survey to the region will uncover?" Dr Doughty said.
He said the discovery is testament to the large expanses of the Australian arid zone that remain poorly surveyed for reptiles. There are likely to be other undescribed species of reptiles in these parts of north-eastern Western Australia and western Northern Territory that have rarely been visited by biologists.
More information and pictures of this story are available on the Western Australian Museum website.
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i look forward to hearing from you
ED: Hi Hamish. You can contact the WA Museum directly with your questions via the feedback form on their website