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Mark O'Shea answers.....
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by Charper on September 3, 2002
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The answer to your question was sent to me by Mark O'Shea:
Why the green tree python is now Morelia viridis and not Chondropython: This is to come degree explained on page 72 of A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea. In a nutshell, distinguished ophidian taxonomists who had conducted in-depth studies of the skull and internal anatomy, and relationships of pythons (including Garth Underwood and Andrew Stimson from the British Museum of Natural History, and Arnold Kluge from the University of Michigan) came to the conclusion that close affinities existed between the green tree python and the carpet python, Morelia spilota, and thence it followed the carpet python into Morelia. Even looking at the exterior of the snakes you can see some similarities such as the fragmentation of the head scales through the Morelia group ie. full scutes (M.amethistina and M.boeleni), initial fragmentation (M.oenpelliensis), partial fragmentation (M.carinata), almost complete fragmentation (M.spilota, M.bredli) complete fragmentation (M.viridis).
Samuel McDowell (Rutgers University, NJ) also recognised the affinities between the carpet python and the green tree python although at that time the carpet python was known as Python spilotus and he left the green tree python in Chondropython. He wrote "Chondropython very likely represents the specialised derivative of an early invasion of New Guinea by Python spilotus, with the present occurrence of P.spilotus in southern new Guinea representing a much later second invasion, just as the occurrence of Chondropython in Cape York would represent a secondary invasion of Australia".
This name change has found general acceptance throughout the academic herpetological world and is used by most authors ie. Barker and Barker,1994; Kend, 1997; Torr, 2000. However, in the account on the green tree python in my guide I suggested that the taxonomic change would not be popular with herpetoculturists. I was wrong, it has been accepted surprisingly readily. Although folks now refer to the "green tree python, Morelia viridis", they (and I) still refer to it fondly as a "chondro" and no amount of taxonomic name changes will ever alter that !
References:
Barker, D.G. & T.M.Barker 1994 Pythons of the World Vol.I Australia. xviii+171pp. The Herptocultural Library, Laekside, CA.
Kend, B.A. 1997 Pythons of Australia. 206pp. Canyonlands Publishing, Provo, UT.
Kluge, A.G. 1993 Aspidites and the phylogeny of pythonine snakes. Rec. Aust. Mus. 1993(19):1-77.
McDowell, S.B. 1975 A catalogue of the snakes of New Guinea and the Solomons, with special reference to those in the Bernice P.Bishop Museum. part III Anilioidea ad Pythoninae. J. Herp. 9(1):1-80.
O'Shea, M.T. 1996 A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea. xii+239pp. Independent Press, Port Moresby.
Torr, G. 2000 Pythons of Australia: A natural history. vii+ 103pp. Krieger, Malabar, FL.
Underwood, G. and A.F.Stimson 1990 A classification of the pythons (Serpentes, Pythoninae) J. Zool. Lond. 221:565-603.
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