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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)

Acanthophis antarcticus, la víbora de muerte común, es una especie de serpiente de la familia Elapidae, nativa de Australia. Es una de las serpientes terrestres más venenosas de Australia y del mundo. Si bien su distribución sigue siendo generalizada (a diferencia de las especies relacionadas), se enfrenta a una mayor amenaza de la invasión en curso del sapo de caña australiano.

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

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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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