return to main index

  mobile - desktop
follow us on facebook follow us on twitter follow us on YouTube link to us on LinkedIn
 
Click here for LLL Reptile & Supply
This Space Available
3 months for $50.00
Locate a business by name: click to list your business
search the classifieds. buy an account
events by zip code list an event
Search the forums             Search in:
News & Events: Herp Photo of the Day: Bearded Dragon . . . . . . . . . .  Tinley Reflections: An open letter from Mom . . . . . . . . . .  Greater Cincinnati Herp Society Meeting - Apr 02, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Calusa Herp Society Meeting - Apr 04, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Southwestern Herp Society Meeting - Apr 06, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Hamburg Reptile Show - Apr. 13, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  St. Louis Herpetological Society - Apr 14, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  San Diego Herp Society Meeting - Apr 16, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Suncoast Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  DFW Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Colorado Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Chicago Herpetological Society Meeting - Apr 21, 2024 . . . . . . . . . . 
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research
full banner - advertise here .50¢/1000 views
click here for Rodent Pro
pool banner - $50 year

RE: Intergrade ?'s

[ Login ] [ User Prefs ] [ Search Forums ] [ Back to Main Page ] [ Back to Hognose Snakes ] [ Reply To This Message ]
[ Register to Post ]

Posted by: FR at Tue Feb 11 07:54:14 2014  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by FR ]  
   

First, the things we/humans, name animals, is to make it handy for us. It many cases, its not about the animals.

In the case of kennerlyi, not exactly sure why they made them separate species. In fact, goggle up the paper, the paper calls them semi species. Which is something I never heard of.

The paper that seperates them, does so with morphology, which is physical differences. In this case, it came down to two different type of head scales, azygous and loreals. It turned out, one was clinal, which means it had a constant change from north to south. The other, didn't, but a certain percentage was in the overlap zone, like 20%

Which means to me, this was a horrible reason to make them separate species, not only is it not accurate, but they, as you mention, express an area in intermediate characters. So basically, most northern hogs, have more azygous then kennerlyi. But some don't.

The truth is, naming species based on morphology is a thing of the past. Currently MTdna is the popular choice. Which as soon as someone gets the time to rework hogs, will change the entire landscape. While Dna does not care what the morphology is, the animals could be physically identical, genetics is a accurate measurable test. The problem is, its kinda useless to the casual user(us)
hogs were a perfect group for naming by morphology and using subspecies(like it was) They have a huge range and which include some very slight physical differences. But are indeed the same snake.
I do not like the term intergrade, as it indicates one pure species, breeding with another species, and resulting in animals that are part way one or the other. Intermediate, simply indicates individuals with morphology between the arbitrary differences we named them for. With Dna, that will not occur, as it does not matter what they physically look like. The will be what their barcode says they are. even if that too is arbitrary.


   

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]


>> Next Message:  RE: Intergrade ?'s - reako45, Wed Feb 12 02:34:21 2014

<< Previous Message:  Intergrade ?'s - reako45, Tue Feb 11 02:52:45 2014