Inland taipan strike if provoked, mishandled, or prevented from escaping. Because it lives in such remote locations, the inland taipan seldom comes in contact with people; therefore it is not considered the most deadly snake in the world overall, especially in terms of disposition and human deaths per year. The word "fierce" from its alternative name describes its venom, not its temperament. The two Australian taipans; the coastal taipan ("Oxyuranus scutellatus") and the inland taipan ("Oxyuranus microlepidotus") shared a common ancestor. Alignments of the mitochondrial ND4 genes from these species indicate an evolutionary divergence from the common ancestor around 9-10 million years
Coastal taipan is exceeded in length among venomous snakes only by the Asiatic king cobra, African black mamba, and genus "Lachesis" (bushmasters) of the American neotropics. The head of the coastal taipan is long and narrow like that of the African black mamba ("Dendroaspis polylepis"), but without the "coffin" shape. The two species are strongly convergent in several aspects of morphology, ecology and behaviour. "O. scutellatus" has an angular brow and is lighter-coloured on the face. The body is slender and colouration can vary. It is often uniformly light olive or reddish-brown in colour, but some specimens may be dark gray to