This question is asked a number of times on other sites, and for some odd reason there is always a lot of controversy surrounding everyone's answers. This is obviously a opinion-based question, relying on both each person's individual experiences with said animals as well as his/her "book" knowledge on them. I personally like both answering and reading other people's answers to this question. I'm always interested in hearing other people's experiences with certain snakes, especially if I desire now or in the future to work with them. That little disclaimer being said, the following is my vote and my reasoning behind it. Lots of people here could probably already guess at my answer, however.

I believe the world's most dangerous snake is the Papuan taipan, Oxyuranus scutellatus canni. The most obvious first reason for this would be the toxicity of their venom. According to Dr. Bryan Fry, the coastal taipan, and their close Papuan cousins, have an LD50 of 0.106 mg/kg subcutaneously, ranking them at the 6th most toxic snake on Earth currently. Though there certainly are more toxic snakes, there are also many more reasons why the Papuans, even over their mainland coastals, rank at number 1 for me. For me, the only reason I separate the Papuan and coastal for this discussion is based on average sizes. Papuans are known to reach slightly longer lengths than their mainland cousins, and when it comes to taipans, the bigger they are, the more dangerous they become.

To continue with the reasoning, you can simply take a look at taipan anatomy. Taipans, coastals and Papuans anyway, have the longest fang to head size ratio of any elapid. Note, this is a ratio. I'm not saying they have the longest ever recorded fang sizes, just the largest proportion. Adults sometimes have fangs over 2cm in length. For all us US people, there are 2.54 cm in one inch, so that means the longest recorded fangs of a taipan have been nearly 1 inch in length. Big compared to a gaboon? Of course not. But big compared to any other elapid? Heck yes! This enables the taipans to inject their venom very deeply into their prey or would-be aggressors. Also, taipan body anatomy helps to explain the amazing feats they seem to be able to perform. Upon initial observation, it is easy to notice the rather slender neck in comparison to the much heavier posterior and larger head. This slim neck allows the taipans to strike and even charge with pretty amazing speed. Again, this speed can't really compared to the striking speed of a viperid, but for an elapid it's pretty impressive.

To speak a little more about venom, very large taipans have been recorded to give a maximum venom yield of 400 mg, with the average being 120 mg. It's rather needless to then point out how many times over dead an average adult human would be in the case of an average bite of an adult taipan. Speaking of venom output, Dr. John Morrison concluded that taipans, as compared to tiger and brown snakes, produced more and more venom in 3 consecutive strikes whereas the other two groups of snakes tended to produce less and less. Because taipans are very well known to bite multiple times in a single go, this makes the scenario for a huge amount of insanely toxic venom being injected *very* likely.

Lastly I'd like to touch a bit on taipan temperament. Just like with many other venomous snakes around the world, stories abound regarding the legendary aggressive taipan which will chase down anyone unfortunate enough to come in its path. While I used to believe this was hogwash like most other fantastical snake stories, I now know to give it at least a little bit of thought. In the past month or two, my two juvenile Papuan taipans have begun to really show their stuff with their threat displays. Now every time I walk into the snake room, they will flatten out their necks and move in a slow deliberate motion, back and forth. If I get even slightly too close, they seem to have no inclinations about charging. These guys are just about 2.5' or so right now, so I can just imagine what that would be like from an 8' specimen. Because of being able to see this in person, I can now imagine where those amazing stories come from, as it is not too difficult to picture a person knowingly or unknowingly happening upon a large taipan which, if it felt cornered for one reason or another, could charge the person. Also, they seem very inclined to jump around backward as if trying to defend the entire body, tail and all. Regardless, seeing this new surge of threat displays has certainly caused me to give even more respect to these awesome snakes.

Anyway, the above has been my reasoning on why I believe the Papuan taipan is indeed the most dangerous snake on the planet. Though they, thankfully, don't kill anywhere near as many people annually as much less toxic species in lesser developed countries do, I'd say if given the right conditions, they would. A large number of people in PNG are killed by the 'Dirioro' or 'Gobari,' both of which mean 'the black snake with the red back.' Luckily though, medical procedures and access have been improving in that country so the likelihood of dying due to them should be dwindling. Thanks for reading. I look forward to reading everyone else's responces.
-Chance

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