Bredli's not Carpets???

[seanjbkorbett]

Hey guys just a topic of friendly discussion.
Umm..I have been reading around,and in the past seen posts on here of people saying they think (Bredli)Centralian carpet pythons are a species of their own and not a subspecies of the Carpet Snakes.
Now there have been records of bredli cross breeding with other carpets,meaning they must be from the same Genus and are definitely Morelia spilota...As some people state you cant cross breed snakes from a different genus..
but then again your able to Cross Elaphe guttata (corns) with Lampropeltis (king snakes) ...As I'am not a expert on Snake genetics this confuses me..Are colubrids able to breed with other colubrids from a different genus,but The family Pythonidae cant?....Is anybody able to explain?

So I was really wondering...Why would some people try and Classify Bredli as a species of its own and not Morelia spilota?

I'am just interested to know..
Cheers

 

[harley0402]

they are a subspecies of the carpet snake

 

[saximus]

You're missing the "spilota" there at the end. As you said Morelia is the genus not the species. Depending where you look it seems they are classified as M. s. bredli or just M. bredli. I'm not sure why this is either but I'll be interested to see what the more learned people have to say.

 

[seanjbkorbett]

You're missing the "spilota" there at the end. As you said Morelia is the genus not the species. Depending where you look it seems they are classified as M. s. bredli or just M. bredli. I'm not sure why this is either but I'll be interested to see what the more learned people have to say.

Oops..haha my bad,edited ..yeah,Iam also interested to hear.

 

[Elapidae1]

There is a lot of different lines of thought, I think one of them being that M.s. bredli and M.S imbricata should be given full species status while the rest are all Morelia spilota I don't understand how DNA works but believe it has been used to seperate Bredli and Imbricata from the rest. But don't take my word thats just my undertstanding of it.

 

[1woma]

There is an article on Bredli's on southern crosses site.... it has a small explanation about this. BTW im a newbie and know nothing about it but love bredli so remembered reading it- here is a link

http://www.southernxreptiles.com/Article PDFs/Bredli.pdf

 

[saximus]

That article is really interesting 1woma thanks. I've actually always thought their heads looked quite distinct compared to the other carpets

 

[lace90]

It is not at the genus level you look at whether species can interbreed, but at the species level. Do determine between species, no interbreeding should occur between them (ie. they do not recognize the other species as being a potential mating partner) and if the cues (such as call, pheromones etc) are still there (as in the wild they do not exist in sympatry, but us humans have brought them together) and they do mate, the sex cells have to join to form viable offspring - of which these offspring cannot be barren. So, the mating must occur, be successful, and subsequent matings of the offspring must be possible for individual groups or populations to be classed as the same species.
So in the case of bredli, as long as they can do the above with morelia spilota, they are classed as a subspecies.

Of course, artificial matings between different species do occur, but this is with human interference and playing with the genetics - it is not natural, and though it can produce new specimens for the herp trade, it is not taken into consideration when classifying species - ie. with corns x kings.
lace

 

[Snakewise84]

they are but it would be to many groups is they all had a class of there own.

 

[Elapidae1]

Lace90 I don't think your defenition holds true in reptile taxonomy (although maybe it should) Antaresia have been split into seperate species yet are still able to breed.