Well, I think that the jury is still out on what is going.

That said, I also think the weight of the evidence thus far is that the striping is at least a dominant trait to the normal Kenyan pattern and is perhaps co-dominant to something else in the Ruffie's. I think we can rule out incomplete dominance since breeding stripe to stripe does not seem to give a "super" form.

There is a post about this from a few weeks ago titled: 25% rufescens litter by CBH on Aug 22, 2010



As for the Ruffie being its own species or sub-species, that might be true but I've seen little evidence either way. They are different as you said, but so are humans, and there is often more morphological variation within species than between. If anyone out there has a "pure" not out-crossed ruffie that they are willing to send me a shed skin of I will test it though. Its a pretty simple thing for me to sequence one of the genes commonly used in testing how different Kenyans and Ruffies are (I work in an evolutionary genetics lab). Any takers????


Actually this may be a good chance to gather all the breeding info and see where we are in terms of figuring out the genetics. If anyone has bred Ruffies and wants to share the results post it. If there is enough data I can run a statistical test of the various possibilities and we can come to a preliminary conclusion.

Best,
Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

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