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A female death adder in Smoky Bay, South Australia🐍

Photo: Luke Allen · CC BY 4.0

SpeciesElapidae
Reptiles

🐍Common death adder

Acanthophis antarcticus (Shaw, 1802)

Die Todesotter (Acanthophis antarcticus, Syn.: Acanthophis schistos) ist eine Schlangenart aus der Familie der Giftnattern (Elapidae), die in weiten Teilen des südlichen, östlichen und nördlichen Australiens vorkommt.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Photos
2
Measurements
9
vs you
≈ 1/160th of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2018.

Population trendDecreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
0.38 kg
Body length
1 m
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
9.3 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Common death adder

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.38 kgrecord 0.25 kg · ReptTraits
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Record: largest individual on record

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Body length
1 mmaximum recorded
ReptTraits
Details ↓

Source: ReptTraits · v1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
9.3 yearsrecord 9.4 years · ReptTraits
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Record: largest individual on record

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Diet
Carnivorous
ReptTraits
Details ↓

Source: ReptTraits · v1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Nocturnal
ReptTraits
Details ↓

Source: ReptTraits · v1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Foraging mode
AMB
ReptTraits
Details ↓

Source: ReptTraits · v1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Venomous
Yes
ReptTraits
Details ↓

Source: ReptTraits · v1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Snout–vent length
0.58 mmaximum recorded
ReptTraits
Other figures ↓

Source: ReptTraits · v1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Female0.44 mReptTraitsv1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024)
  • Male0.58 mReptTraitsv1.2 (Oskyrko et al. 2024)
Volume l
0.4 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Common death adder yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classSquamata
  4. ›familyElapidae
  5. ›genusAcanthophis
  6. ›speciesAcanthophis antarcticus
Full lineage
  1. superorderLepidosauria
  2. orderLizards & snakes · Squamata
  3. infraorderSnakes · Serpentes
  4. genusAcanthophis
All 12 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. superorderLepidosauria
  10. orderLizards & snakes · Squamata
  11. infraorderSnakes · Serpentes
  12. genusAcanthophis
More

More about the Common death adder

In other languages
Todesotter (de), vipère de la mort (fr), Dödsorm (sv), surmakäärme (fi), コモンデスアダー (ja), Zdradnica śmiercionośna (pl) … and 17 more languages
More photos
A female death adder in Smoky Bay, South AustraliaCSIRO ScienceImage 3990 Death Adder
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