Aspidites - Major New Discovery

[Magpie]

Maybe the fact that they burrow / dig means that dirt would catch in / fill up the normal type heat pits?

[Slateman]

I think that Magpie have point there.
We will hear a lot about this in next few months, I am sure.

[africancichlidau]

Is a groove a pit?

[ad]

Has anyone checked their snakes?
I was experimenting with my bhp last night.
I think it has merit, certainly not as advanced as morelia, but thats evolution.

Has anyones bhp not got the pit?
http://www.aussiepythons.com/modules...view_photo.php

[NoOne]

I checked a couple of mine, pretty cool, i never took any notice of it before.
Not very big and it's in a bad place if they where using it for hunting.

Maybe it's something to do with regulating or knowing their body temp as they use their heads to warm up alot of the time.

Very interesting, i'm sure there will be some good debates as to what is used for.
I personally can't see how it would be good for hunting, it's quite consealed it would be dragging the ground, heat trails? Other pythons are pointing straight out.

Have you ever noticed when bhps get excited or are in a new place they make a sort of head bobbing motion, could be exposing the pit...... i'm crapping on now

[kevyn]

That's really facinating. I was just reading an article on Womas in the Reptiles magazine we have over here, and it talked abit about them lacking heat pits. Amazing. Magpie is right on the money about the evolutionary reasoning behind them not having labial pits. They do alot of burrowing, and that is the going theory from alot of herpetlogists. Good thinking. This discovery makes me want Womas and BHPs even more. Damn priorities!

[peterescue]

Fuscus, I thought they were considered a primitive python because the predated the newer python form that migrated down to Australia from Asia and therefore took a different evolutionary branch. While the newcomers evolved from them. Does that make sense.
Peter

[instar]

Maybe it's something to do with regulating or knowing their body temp as they use their heads to warm up alot of the time.

Now thats a very intresting theory indeed, especially with bhp's. The heat trail theory is intresting too, but i would think heat traces from fast moving prey would be minimal, and widly affected by humidity /lack of and other climatic variables. perhaps they are somehow connected with the jacobsons organ and work in tandem to detect scent aswell? Is there any opening at all?

[basketcase]

sorry to dig up an oldy... but were there any actual findings on the subject?

[Morelia_Hunter]

Who is conducting the research? Is it at a University or is this just observation?

[Sdaji]

I find the woma hybrids interesting. I had thought that the lack of pits may be a derived rather than primitive condition, the lack of pits on the hybrids is evidence for this. Many people have suggested that Aspidites have the infra-red heat sensing nerves like other pythons, but they don't have them exposed with pits in the scales like the others, presumably due to the sandy habitat, burrowing etc as people here have said. Surprising no one has done any serious work to check for the nerve structures or heat sensing capabilities. A few people in the past few years have said they could see pits on black headed pythons' rostral scales and they've always been laughed at or ridiculed before.

[PilbaraPythons]

I tried to get the W.A museum interested in undertaking this as a project nearly two years ago and I have got to say that they were less than enthusiastic about it. Adrian Hogg my business partner tried talking me into us doing it our selves but the reality still remains that although he has greats skills gained from his time at university we lack access to a laboratory here in the remote Pilbara. As I am not in this for ego or glory I would rather let some body else take this further. Also I couldn't care less if I am ridiculed or eventually proven to be wrong, in fact I invite it and at this stage still stand by my belief.
Cheers Dave Mackintosh

[womas4me]

I remember you mentioning this here quite some time ago Dave. Glad to hear it hasn't been forgotten.

[Morelia_Hunter]

Nobody is judging you mate. Research cost lots of money and unfortunately scientists dont find this topic as interesting as we do. What could the applications be if this was true for this group of snakes? Could we incorporate it in our daily life, this is how scientific grants work these days. There is too much information out there based on pure speculation, this could especially be said for taxonomy as there are certain people around who just classify animals because they think that is how it works. It is always good to have the research there to back you up. People tend to belive everything they read on the net, I dont know why???? There is so much misleading information around these days and young herpers dont know the difference. The only forms of information that can be trusted is the information that gets obtained over years and years of trial and error. This information is then assembled and then handed over to the scrutiny of your peers. I can guarantee you this is the most stressful aspect of the whole process. Others decide if your research hold merit or not. This could mean that 3 years of your life or more could have been wasted. I wont even go into the publishing of this material in a scientific journal!!! The whole world has the right to second guess you then. Just my thoughts though!

[Magpie]

I looked for this thread a while ago, thanks for bringing it back.
This is where herp societies need to fulfill their charter and help with research IMO.
There is plenty of herp oriented UNI students and graduates around and something like this research makes a great masters or PhD project. A while back I tried to get someone interested in doing a study of the nutritional breakdown of common herp foods. I was willing to try and organise funding if required and ensure the findings would be published. I couldn't get any bites and my circumstances changed so I gave up.
Dave, UWA would be the go there, not the museum (just tell them you have Curtin Uni interested ).