List of venomous animals


Numerous animal species naturally produce chemical toxins which are used to kill or incapacitate prey or as a defense against predators.
Venomous animals actively deliver their toxins into their target through a specially designed mechanism, such as a bite or sting, by using a venom apparatus, such as fangs or a stinger, in a processes called envenomation.
They are often distinguished from poisonous animals, which instead passively deliver their toxins to their victims upon contact such as through inhalation, absorption through the skin, or after being ingested. The only difference between venomous animals and poisonous animals is how they deliver the toxins. This list deals exclusively with venomous animals.
Venoms have adapted to serve a wide variety of purposes. Their intended effects can range from mild fleeting discomfort to paralysis and death, and they may be highly selective in which species they target, often making them harmless to all but a few specific organisms; what may be fatal to one species may be totally insignificant to another species. Because the definition of "venomous" can be extremely broad, this list includes only those animals with venom that is known or suspected to be medically significant for humans or domestic animals.

Invertebrates

Arthropods

Arachnids

Strictly speaking, all spiders and scorpions possess venom, though only a handful are dangerous to humans. Spiders typically deliver their venom with a bite from piercing, fang-like chelicerae; scorpions sting their victims with a long, curved stinger mounted on the telson.
Spiders
Of more than a thousand known species of scorpion, only a few dozen have venom that is dangerous to humans, most notably the bark scorpions, including:Centruroides spp.

Insects

Other arthropods

Mollusks

  • Cone snails of the family Conidae are a diverse group of predatory marine gastropods, mostly tropical in distribution, which hunt and immobilize prey using a modified harpoon-like radular tooth that can deliver neurotoxic conopeptides. All cone snails are venomous, though the danger posed to humans varies widely by species.
Many species of octopus, squid, and cuttlefish make use of venom when hunting their prey.
  • The blue-ringed octopodes produce tetrodotoxin, which is extremely toxic to even the healthiest adult humans, though the number of actual fatalities they have caused is far lower than the number caused by spiders and snakes, with which human contact is more common.

Cnidarians

Echinoderms

Chaetognathans

Annelids

Glyceridae, also called bloodworms, is a family of carnivorous polychaete worms which have an eversible proboscis equipped with four jaws connected to venom glands, used for killing the invertebrates they feed on.

Vertebrates

Fish

There are at least 1,200 species of venomous fish, including:

Reptiles

Snakes

Lizards

Dinosaurs

Some scientists have proposed that Sinornithosaurus had a venomous bite, but later evidence suggests otherwise.

Amphibians

Though there are numerous poisonous amphibian species capable of secreting lethal toxins through their skin, relatively few amphibians are truly venomous.

Frogs

Salamanders

Caecilians

Mammals

Only a few modern mammal species are capable of producing venom; they are likely the last living examples of what was once a more common trait among the mammals. The definition of "venomous" becomes less distinct here, however, and whether some species are truly venomous is still debated.