Inland taipan ago. The inland taipan would have been known to Aboriginal Australians 40,000-60,000 years ago and is well known to them today. To the aboriginal people from the place now called Goyder Lagoon in north-east South Australia, the inland taipan was called "Dandarabilla". The inland taipan first came to the attention of Western science in 1879. Two specimens of the fierce snake were discovered in the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers in northwestern Victoria and described by Frederick McCoy, who called the species "Diemenia microlepidota", or small-scaled brown snake. In 1882 a third specimen was found near Bourke, New
Taipan Taipan The taipans are snakes of the genus Oxyuranus in the elapid family. They are large, fast-moving, highly venomous, and endemic to Australasia. There are currently three recognised species, one of which, the coastal taipan, has two subspecies. The taipans are considered some of the most deadly known snakes. The common name, taipan, was coined by anthropologist Donald Thomson after the word used by the Wik-Mungkan Aboriginal people of central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. The genus name is from Greek "oxys" (sharp, needle-like) and "ouranos" (an arch, specifically the arch of the heavens), and refers to the needle-like anterior