Coastal taipan Coastal taipan The coastal taipan ("Oxyuranus scutellatus"), or common taipan, is a species of large, extremely venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to the coastal regions of northern and eastern Australia and the island of New Guinea. According to most toxicological studies, this species is the third-most venomous land snake in the world after the Inland taipan and Eastern brown snake based on its murine . German naturalist Wilhelm Peters described the coastal taipan as "Pseudechis scutellatus" in 1867. Two subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies. The coastal taipan is the longest
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