Saw-Scaled Viper (Echis carinatus)

Ranging across dry zones of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, the Saw-Scaled Viper is small (30-80 cm) but exceptionally aggressive. Rubbing its serrated keeled scales together to emit a loud sizzling hiss, its venom contains echistatin, a ferocious procoagulant metalloproteinase that causes uncontrollable systemic hemorrhaging, spontaneous brain bleeding, and kidney destruction. Responsible for more human snakebite fatalities globally than any other venomous reptile. Ranks #9 behind Black Mamba in individual LD50 and venom yield, but outranks Brazilian Wandering Spider because Echis carinatus is responsible for more human deaths worldwide annually than any other snake on earth due to its camouflage and rural agricultural overlap.