Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think it is interesting and I want to hear opinions so...

There are alot of different morphes out there and every time you think ok that's got to be the last one, bang, some one finds a new one, usually co dom. Is it possible in any ones opinion that these mutations could start out as random aberants and just by chance be inheritable? Has any one ever had a snake bred it multiple times to the same snake, gotten a morph and then not been able to replicate this morph with the original parents but had the aberent morph pass on its new trait to its progeny? Thoughts? Is this science fiction or possibility?
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1.1 Balls (1.0 het clown 0.1 normal)
1.1 Kittys and
0.1 WC Human
"I need evaluation...and dinner; and by dinner I don't mean gnome heads!"

It's not science fiction, but it is extremely low probability. Here is how it could happen:

A female has a mutation happen to a gene in one line of egg cells. That mutant gene is dominant or codominant to the normal version of the gene. Only one egg cell from that line is fertilized by a sperm and produces a viable animal.

I'm saying a female because there are far fewer eggs produced than sperm. And there is a tremendous wastage among the egg cells that an animal starts with. While the same could happen with sperm, a repeat is more likely if the original mutation was in the sire.

I have not heard of anything like this happening in snakes in captivity. The original tiger reticulated python might have occurred this way. Or the original spider or pastel ball python.

Hope this helps.

Paul Hollander

Thank you for replying. You've given me some good thought fuel.
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1.1 Balls (1.0 het clown 0.1 normal)
1.1 Kittys and
0.1 WC Human
"I need evaluation...and dinner; and by dinner I don't mean gnome heads!"