Again, the point is, you're going on morphology (physical features), which is thankfully invalid when classifying organism's lineage. Acanthopis probably developed the vertical pupils because of its nocturnal activity patterns. If you'll notice, most highly nocturnal snakes have vertical pupils. As for the keeled scales, I'm not personally familiar with why they developed them, but they aren't the only elapid that did (see Hemachatus, or Rinkhal's cobras). So yes, while the similarities between death adders and many viperids are striking, it means absolutely nothing in regards to the organisms from which the Acanthopis genus evolved.
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

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