Posted by:
CKing
at Sat Apr 19 21:28:44 2008 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by CKing ]
>>If dwarfism is indeed ancestral, then the two allopatric populations to the north almost certainly evolved their large body sizes independently of each other and therefore they should not be lumped together as a single subspecies because of morphological similarities that are likely convergent.
A similar situation exists in the species Lampropeltis getulus, the common kingsnake. There are two subspecies that are characterized by melanism, L. g. niger and L. g. nigritus. These two taxa acquired the trait of melanism independently of each other, and they are also allopatric in distribution. Taxonomists in general do not consider them the same subspecies. Similarly, the 2 large morphs of the Rubber boa most likely required the large morph phenotype independently and they are allopatric. They should therefore not be lumped.
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RE: C. bottae taxonomy - CKing, Sat Apr 19 21:28:44 2008