Taipan process on the arch of the palate, which Kinghorn noted separated the genus from all other elapids. The three known species are: the coastal taipan ("Oxyuranus scutellatus"), the inland taipan ("Oxyuranus microlepidotus"), and a recently discovered third species, the Central Ranges taipan ("Oxyuranus temporalis"). The coastal taipan has two subspecies: the coastal taipan ("O. s. scutellatus"), found along the northeastern coast of Queensland, and the Papuan taipan ("O. s. canni"), found on the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. A 2016 genetic analysis showed that the speckled brown snake was an early offshoot of a lineage giving rise to the
Coastal taipan coastal taipan occurs only in Australia and the island of New Guinea, which comprises two Indonesian provinces on the west side of the island and the nation of Papua New Guinea on the east side of the island. Found in northern and eastern Australia, the coastal taipan, despite its name, can live in habitats hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest beach. Its geographical range extends from north-western Western Australia, the Northern Territory, across Cape York Peninsula and down eastern Queensland into northern New South Wales (as far south as Grafton). However, the coastal taipan is not found in regions