Kimberley Death Adder

The Kimberley death adder (Acanthophis cryptamydros) is a species of venomous snake in the family Elapidae native to northwestern Australia.

Richard Wells and Ross Wellington gave the Kimberley death adder its scientific name Acanthophis lancasteri—in honour of Burt Lancaster—in a 1985 monograph, citing as the type specimen an adult collected 45 kilometres (28 mi) north-northeast of Halls Creek in Western Australia. They cited a 1981 paper by Glen Milton Storr, who had written about death adders of Western Australia. Storr considered both Kimberley and Cape York populations as northern death adder (A. praelongus), and Wells and Wellington noted the description was restricted to the Kimberley population and renamed it as a new species. The monograph was criticised for new species having no or minimal descriptions. Ken P. Aplin and Steve C. Donnellan incorrectly called the name a nomen nudum believing neither Wells and Wellington's nor Storr's notes distinguished the new taxon from the northern death adder, but overlooking the purported differentiating characters with W&W.