Dude you are not getting it.

Wild populations are full of variation. That is key to evolution. All your field observations tell us is that locality has a lot of diversity, and the hypermelanistic gene is prevalent in that locality.

It makes perfect sense; your observations are congruent with the hardie-weinberg principle.

What you are observing is many different genes at work.

Hypermelanism is independent of those other traits you described. However it is very possible that that gene is physically located close to other traits, and they are commonly inherited together because of their locations on the chromosomes. See linkage disequilibrium.

Kind of like white skin, blond hair and blue eyes are commonly found on the same individual, but every once in a while you find a black person with blue or green eyes and literally every combination inbetween. Those are different genes.

There is not some magical gene that has many phenotypes, they are independent genes, that can be associated with each-other due to their presence in the population AND their physical location to one another within the genomes of the snakes.

Look at this variation.



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"We are challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations" George W.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Rarest Cal King - trivirgata, Mon Aug 15 10:44:16 2011
• RE: Rarest Cal King - rosspadilla, Mon Aug 15 10:59:07 2011
• RE: Rarest Cal King - rosspadilla, Mon Aug 15 13:54:57 2011
• RE: Rarest Cal King - bmac, Mon Aug 15 23:49:43 2011
• RE: Rarest Cal King - Bluerosy, Mon Aug 15 23:57:44 2011
• Actually,.... - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 00:12:39 2011
• RE: Actually,.... - bmac, Tue Aug 16 00:32:57 2011
• RE: Actually,.... - Aaron, Tue Aug 16 00:44:31 2011
• RE: Actually,.... - bmac, Tue Aug 16 00:58:17 2011
• RE: Actually,.... - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 02:48:51 2011
• RE: Actually,.... - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 02:58:21 2011
• So what exactly... - a153fish, Tue Aug 16 10:23:15 2011
• RE: So what exactly... - DMong, Tue Aug 16 12:14:52 2011
• So now we have........ - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 12:33:37 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 13:14:11 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - DMong, Tue Aug 16 13:48:07 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - Bluerosy, Tue Aug 16 14:39:45 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 14:54:19 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - DMong, Tue Aug 16 21:41:00 2011
• Need clarification........ - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 15:11:09 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 16:12:42 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - Dobry, Tue Aug 16 16:30:00 2011
• Cool,...... - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 16:55:50 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - bmac, Tue Aug 16 19:41:23 2011
• The,........ - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 20:07:49 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 20:46:58 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - bmac, Tue Aug 16 21:17:10 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 22:21:11 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - bmac, Wed Aug 17 00:03:01 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - Dobry, Tue Aug 16 23:03:58 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - Bluerosy, Tue Aug 16 23:45:41 2011
• RE: Need clarification........ - bmac, Wed Aug 17 00:26:39 2011
• Actually,........ - Kerby..., Wed Aug 17 00:38:13 2011
• RE: Actually,........ - bmac, Wed Aug 17 01:36:14 2011
• None of those......... - Kerby..., Wed Aug 17 01:50:19 2011
• RE: None of those......... - bmac, Wed Aug 17 02:48:39 2011
• RE: None of those......... - Dobry, Wed Aug 17 12:36:28 2011
• RE: None of those......... - bmac, Wed Aug 17 15:02:12 2011
• RE: None of those......... - Dobry, Wed Aug 17 16:42:15 2011
• RE: None of those......... - bmac, Wed Aug 17 19:27:23 2011
• RE: None of those......... - Dobry, Thu Aug 18 00:04:04 2011
• RE: None of those......... - bmac, Thu Aug 18 00:42:55 2011
• All very interesting... - davidtobler, Thu Aug 18 04:15:57 2011
• RE: All very interesting... - Rick Staub, Thu Aug 18 05:27:55 2011
• RE: All very interesting... - Dobry, Thu Aug 18 18:26:01 2011
• There ya go...... - Kerby..., Wed Aug 17 01:59:28 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - Aaron, Tue Aug 16 19:11:46 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 20:59:21 2011
• yeah,.......... - DMong, Tue Aug 16 14:02:56 2011
• RE: So now we have........ - Aaron, Tue Aug 16 19:08:15 2011
• That's what I said........... - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 19:39:07 2011
• RE: That's what I said........... - bmac, Tue Aug 16 19:48:46 2011
• Well,....... - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 20:00:25 2011
• RE: Well,....... - bmac, Tue Aug 16 20:03:26 2011
• I would like to......... - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 09:19:36 2011
• RE: Actually,.... - Bluerosy, Tue Aug 16 10:34:45 2011
• RE: Actually,.... - trivirgata, Tue Aug 16 12:01:29 2011
• RE: Rarest Cal King - JoeBudro, Thu Aug 18 20:56:04 2011
• RE: Rarest Cal King - grnpyro, Tue Aug 16 16:14:20 2011
• RE: Rarest Cal King - rosspadilla, Tue Aug 16 16:25:40 2011
• We have a winner. - Bluerosy, Tue Aug 16 17:44:52 2011
• Well,.......... - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 18:11:53 2011
• RE: Well,.......... - Bluerosy, Tue Aug 16 18:46:28 2011
• That..... - Kerby..., Tue Aug 16 19:05:36 2011
• also........... - DMong, Wed Aug 17 10:05:54 2011
• RE: That..... - JoeBudro, Thu Aug 18 20:59:02 2011