After an early start and an uneventful drive we arrived at Brisbane airport. We’d checked in online the previous day, and when we presented our printed boarding passes to the hostess at the gate they weren’t accepted. We had to go and see the guy at the ticketing counter. After a bit of faffing around he said “It’s your lucky day – I have to seat you in business class”. Needless to say Alecia and I were both excited.
After five and a half hours of “Would Sir care for some more champagne?” we touched-down in Perth. As we taxied down the runway the pilot told us that it was about 40 degrees C. outside. As we walked down the stairs onto the tarmac we had reason to believe him.
Janine (our local tour guide) picked us up and we headed back to her place. Janine and her fiance, Mike, are PhD students at the University of Western Australia, and zoologically inclined like ourselves.
The next day Alecia and I went to the WA museum to check out the local knowledge repository. One of the first displays greeting visitors as they enter the Discovery Centre concerns the newly described taipan species.
The WA museum display regarding the new taipan species.
The lone specimen of the central ranges taipan (Oxyuranus temporalis) was caught in October 2006, but initially identified as a western brown snake (Pseudonaja nuchalis). It wasn’t until the museum’s reptile collections manager, Brad Maryan, looked at the snake that it was identified as a new species of taipan. It was identified as a taipan, but distinguished from the existing taipan species, based on scale morphology and genetic evidence.
The only specimen of the central ranges taipan (Oxyuranus temporalis).
While I’d normally be skeptical about a new species being described based on just one specimen, it certainly seems like there’s a new species of taipan out and about in central Western Australia. That a new member of such an iconic group of snakes has gone undetected for so long seems amazing, but when you consider the vast expanses of Australia that are virtually unexplored, and the story behind the discovery and description of the inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), it makes you wonder what else is out there awaiting discovery.
Was the snake already dead when found, does it live underground, what does it feed upon, about how old do you think it is? Was it close to mountains or desert like or in a wooded area…
Have there been any others from this group found before now?
Carol
Hi Carol,
Use Google to find information on taipans. Here’s a brief rundown:
It was alive when they found.
There’s no reason to think it lives underground.
It eats mammals.
No idea about age. It’s probably an adult.
It was found near a desert mountain range.
There are two other species in the genus.
Stewart