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Wonambi is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 currently consisting of two species of very large snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s. These species are not pythons, like Australia's other large constrictors of the genus Morelia
Morelia

Morelia is the capital of the Mexico States of Mexico of Michoac?n. The city is situated at an elevation of 1,921 meters above sea level in the region of the Guayangareo Valley, surrounded by the Punhuato and Quinceo Hills....
, but a member of a now extinct family Madtsoiidae
Madtsoiidae

Madtsoiidae are an extinct group of mostly Gondwanan snakes with a fossil record extending from early Cenomanian to late Pleistocene stratum located in South America, Africa, India, Australia and Southern Europe....
. This genus was a part of the extinct megafauna of Australia
Australian megafauna

Australian megafauna are a number of large animal species in Australia , often defined as species with body mass estimates of greater than 30 kilograms, or equal to or greater than 30% greater body mass than their closest living relatives....
.

type species
Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
 is Wonambi naracoortensis, a five to six metre long snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
; the only other known species is Wonambi barriei.

onambi seems to have been an ambush predator
Ambush predator

Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivore that capture prey by stealth or cunning, not by speed or necessarily by strength....
.






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Encyclopedia


Wonambi is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 currently consisting of two species of very large snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s. These species are not pythons, like Australia's other large constrictors of the genus Morelia
Morelia

Morelia is the capital of the Mexico States of Mexico of Michoac?n. The city is situated at an elevation of 1,921 meters above sea level in the region of the Guayangareo Valley, surrounded by the Punhuato and Quinceo Hills....
, but a member of a now extinct family Madtsoiidae
Madtsoiidae

Madtsoiidae are an extinct group of mostly Gondwanan snakes with a fossil record extending from early Cenomanian to late Pleistocene stratum located in South America, Africa, India, Australia and Southern Europe....
. This genus was a part of the extinct megafauna of Australia
Australian megafauna

Australian megafauna are a number of large animal species in Australia , often defined as species with body mass estimates of greater than 30 kilograms, or equal to or greater than 30% greater body mass than their closest living relatives....
.

Diversity

The type species
Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
 is Wonambi naracoortensis, a five to six metre long snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
; the only other known species is Wonambi barriei.

Description

Wonambi seems to have been an ambush predator
Ambush predator

Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivore that capture prey by stealth or cunning, not by speed or necessarily by strength....
. Rather than using venom, the animal would kill its prey by constriction
Constriction

Sorry, no overview for this topic
. The head of the animal was small, restricting the size of its prey.

Taxonomy and naming

Wonambi naracoortensis was first described from fossils collected at Naracoorte, South Australia
Naracoorte, South Australia

Naracoorte is a town in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia, approximately 336 kilometres south east of Adelaide and 100 kilometres north of Mount Gambier, South Australia on the Riddoch Highway ....
, the first extinct snake to be found in Australia.

It was given the name Wonambi from the description, by the local Aboriginal people, of a serpent
Serpent

Serpent is a synonym for snake.Serpent and similar can also mean:* Serpent , the name given to a snake in a religious or mythological context...
 of the Dreamtime
Dreamtime

In Aboriginal mythology, Dreaming or Altjeringa is a sacred 'once upon a time' time out of time in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation....
. This serpent, a mythological being commonly referred to by both Aboriginal people and Europeans as the Rainbow Serpent
Rainbow Serpent

The Rainbow Serpent is an important mythology being for Indigenous Australians people across Australia, although the creation myths associated with it are best known from northern Australia....
, were often held responsible for the creation of major features of the landscape. The Wagyl
Wagyl

The Wagyl is, according to Noongar culture, a snakelike Dreamtime creature responsible for the creation of the Swan River and Canning River s and other waterways and landforms around present day Perth, Western Australia and the south-west of Western Australia...
 of the Western Australian Noongar
Noongar

The Noongar , are an indigenous Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia from Geraldton, Western Australia on the west coast to Esperance, Western Australia on the south coast....
 people is thought to correlate to the South Australian people's Wonambi.

The family of this species, Madtsoiidae, became extinct in other parts of the world around 55 million years ago, but new species continued to evolve in Australia. These species are the last known to have existed, becoming extinct in the last 50 000 years.

Ecology

Wonambi naracoortensis lived during the Pleistocene
Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
 Ice Age
Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....
 period, in natural sun-traps beside local waterholes, where they would ambush kangaroo
Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the Red Kangaroo, the Antilopine Kangaroo, and the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo of the Macropus genus....
, wallaby
Wallaby

A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name....
 and other prey coming to the water to drink. For this reason, children were forbidden in Aboriginal culture to play at such places, and only allowed to visit when accompanied by an adult. Mapping such locations in Western Australia, has been found to be closely associated with areas the Noongar
Noongar

The Noongar , are an indigenous Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia from Geraldton, Western Australia on the west coast to Esperance, Western Australia on the south coast....
 people regard as Waugal sacred sites.

Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery

Professor Tim Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, paleontology and global warming activist. Flannery was named Australian of the Year in 2007 and is presently a professor at Macquarie University....
 claims that this animal, along with other Australian megafauna
Australian megafauna

Australian megafauna are a number of large animal species in Australia , often defined as species with body mass estimates of greater than 30 kilograms, or equal to or greater than 30% greater body mass than their closest living relatives....
, became extinct as a result of activities of the Australian Aborigines (for example firestick farming).

See also

  • Australian megafauna
    Australian megafauna

    Australian megafauna are a number of large animal species in Australia , often defined as species with body mass estimates of greater than 30 kilograms, or equal to or greater than 30% greater body mass than their closest living relatives....