Hi Steno,

well, actually all island populations somehow came there once. Most of them "traveled" on a log, or were blind passengers on boats, ship or other vehicles (e.g. the brown tree snake at Guam, which was imported by ship). Others became "vicims of geographic changes". There are indeed many more snakes and other reptiles than P. reticulatus or M. nauta.


@Dear Richard, perhaps something that you already have read, but maybe not:

CHRISTOPHER C. AUSTIN, 2000, Molecular Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of Pacific Island Boas (Candoia), Copeia 2000 No. 2
http://www.museum.lsu.edu/Austin/WeCopeia, 2003(1), pp. 81–94
Body Size Evolution in Snakes: Evidence from Island Populations
SCOTT M. BOBACKb Site Images&pdfs/AustinCandoia2000.pdf
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JAVIER A. RODRÍGUEZ-ROBLES, DALE F. DENARDO and RICHARD E. STAUB, 1999, Phylogeography of the California mountain kingsnake,
Lampropeltis zonata (Colubridae), Molecular Ecology (1999) 8, 1923–1934 Blackwell Science, Ltd.
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Zolta´n Tama´ s Nagy, Ulrich Joger, Michael Wink, Frank Glaw
and Miguel Vences, 2003, Multiple colonization of Madagascar and Socotra by colubrid snakes: evidence from nuclear and mitochondrial gene phylogenies, The Royal Society
http://www.mvences.de/p/p1/Vences_A58.pdf
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SCOTT M. BOBACK, 2003, Body Size Evolution in Snakes: Evidence from Island Populations, Copeia, 2003(1), pp. 81–94
http://web6.duc.auburn.edu/~bobacsm/islmain.pdf

Hope there something interesting for you to read.

Cheers,
Wulf
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http://www.leiopython.de - the white-lipped python site -
http://www.herpers-digest.com - herp related eBooks search -

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