Hello,

I am a geneticist and even though my work is mostly bacterial and human genetics, I am extremely interested in snake genetics as well.

I have been getting more and more interested in Death Adders recently. I almost bought a couple but could not get the necessary import permit so I couldn't. But I am still interested. I have been reading a lot about them and everybody says that they are the result of convergent evolution.

I have to be honest here. When I look at them, I see vipers. Ambush hunting, tail luring, vertical pupils, triangular head shape, short/stout body shape etc. But they are classifieds as Elapids by taxonomists. Why?

From what I have been reading in the scientific literature, their strike kinematics are somewhat elapid like, their venom is completely neurotoxic like most elapids and there are no vipers in Australia so we are classifying Death Adders as elapids. But I haven't seen any genetics data. (I have looked but not throughly).

I am neither an herpetologist nor a taxonomist but I understand the concepts somewhat due to my interest. However, as a geneticist, I would classify them vipers if there are no genetics data like ribosomal RNA sequencing etc. that ties them to Elapids. If we are classifying these beasts as elapids just to prove an evolutionary point, I think we are doing wrong. They may as well be a remnant of the old world vipers before the continents got divided.

So please enlighten me... Why do we call them Elapids? Is it only the venom (which would be HIGHLY idiotic), is it the fact that there are no other vipers in Australia or do we have genetics data? This has been bugging me for a while and I had to say something.

Thanks,
Yasin


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