Hydrophis belcheri
Belcher's sea snake, which many times is mistakenly called the "hook-nosed sea snake" ("Enhydrina schistosa"), has been erroneously popularized as the most venomous snake in the world, due to Ernst and Zug's published book "Snakes in Question: The Smithsonian Answer Book" from 1996.
Associate Professor Bryan Grieg Fry, a prominent venom expert, has clarified the error: "The hook nosed myth was due to a fundamental error in a book called 'Snakes in question'. In there, all the toxicity testing results were lumped in together, regardless of the mode of testing (e.g. subcutaneous vs. intramuscular vs intravenous vs intraperitoneal). As the mode can influence the relative number, venoms can only be compared within a mode. Otherwise, its apples and rocks.". Studies on mice and human cardiac cell culture shows that venom of the inland taipan, drop by drop, is the most toxic among all snakes; land or sea. The most venomous sea snake is actually Dubois' seasnake ("Aipysurus duboisii" ).
Eastern brown snake
The eastern brown snake ("Pseudonaja textilis"), often referred to as the common brown snake, is an extremely venomous snake of the family Elapidae, native to eastern and central Australia and southern New Guinea. Considered the world's second-most venomous land snake after the Inland Taipan and based on its value (subcutaneous) in mice, it is responsible for about 60% of snake-bite deaths in Australia. First described by André Marie Constant Duméril in 1854, the adult eastern brown snake is a slender snake up to 2 m (7 ft) long with variable upperparts that can be various shades of brown, ranging from pale brown to almost black. Its underside is pale cream-yellow, often with orange or grey splotches.