March 13, 2007
An illustration of a central ranges taipan.
Original news of find reported here on Cryptomundo.
A NEW species of the world’s most venomous snake, the taipan, has been discovered.
The central ranges taipan was found in the central desert of Western Australia but its habitat could extend into the Northern Territory and South Australia.
Dr Mark Hutchinson, from the SA Museum, caught the snake crossing a dirt track on a sunny afternoon during a survey of the Ngaanyatjarra lands late last year. The find was announced yesterday. Laboratory analysis at the WA Museum, and DNA testing at the SA Museum, confirmed it was a new species.
Professor Steve Donnellan, who conducted the DNA tests, says this find has real significance.
“Its DNA profile is very distinctive, compared with the other taipans and the brown snakes,” he said.
“The last big new snake discovery in Australia was probably in the early ’80s, one in northern Australia and one in the southwest. And the last new taipan was discovered 125 years ago.” Professor Richard Shine is a leading Australian biologist and an expert on the evolution and ecology of Australian snakes.
“My initial reaction is that this is really exciting,” he said. “Taipans are such an icon of Australia.
“To discover that there’s an entirely new taipan, more than a hundred years after the last one, really gives us an idea of what might be out there.”
There are two other species of the snake, the inland taipan, and the common taipan, of which there are two sub species, mainland coastal and Papuan.
Professor Shine says it is still very common for people to be finding new species. “It does seem remarkable that such large animals of general interest are quite poorly known,” he said.
“Maybe that reflects how few people are interested in going out to catch large snakes on hot days.”Clare Peddie
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About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Expedition Reports, New Species