Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are you kidding me? What's next year's name? LOL!

dg

I guess a link might help... lol.

Scotophis

is the one and only-est fox snake collection on my block. I've changed the labels on my north american rats and re-arranged them according to clade. They're currently confused (the one pictured below is so confused that he started biting himself) and a little scared. But they'll bounce back and answer to their new names within the month.

Too funny!!!,.....but I don't think Dwight will have to worry too much about next years name.............by THAT time, they will have proposed a different one altogether!..hahaha!

Anyway, I still call them what I always have been for decades,....same with the North American Rats(Elaphe obsoleta complex). If someone can't figure out what I mean by using those names, they don't really know alot about the snakes they're talking about in the first place...

e.g. my quadrivittata below.......SEE!,..it still works!,,LOL!

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

NP

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Same here, I learned 'em all as Elaphe. Its hard to use the new names & I think they have over-split the ENTIRE Ratsnake family. Oh I know several asian members ( rufodorsata for sure..) were not strictly Elaphe, but..
Old habits die hard with me..

Matthew

i agree. stunning.

when people call me by a new name I usually bite myself also.
this behavior is normal and the snake will stop once he gets accustomed to his new name. but when it changes again in 6-12 months, he'll go back to biting again.
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1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
0.1.0 Black Ratsnake
0.0.1 Texas Rat (tame)
1.0.0 Broad Banded Water Snake, Hypo
1.0.0 Black Bassador Retriever
2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets

I'm going to rename my foxsnakes from Mintonius gloydius to Flintsoneius yabadabadoiensis (to honor the achievements of Fred Flintstone in the field of paleobiology). I'm basing this name chgange on the genetic drift I've noticed since my snakes moved to New England. Also their range has become isolated from other foxsnakes and they now favor clam chowder over mice.

>> "I'm basing this name change on the genetic drift I've noticed since my snakes moved to New England."

* Hmmm,....that sounds eerily like something "FR" would say!..hahaha!

BTW, Fred Flintstone was quite the herpetoculturist back in "the day",.....it is thought that he was the original producer of the so-called "Jurassic Milksnake"!!..LOL! therefore, I also think he deserves a well-earned niche in taxonomic nomenclature...

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

to find someone beside myself who also recognizes the important work done by F. Flintstone and other pioneers in the herpetoculture field. Jurassic Milksnakes were certainly a great milestone. And back then the DNA was so much larger and heavier that genetic analysis was back breaking labor. I hope we always honor the memory of such great cavemen.

Seriously, I have no dog in this fight. I used to get annoyed because they kept switching the nomenclature on me. But now I just sort of get amused. Either way they're still ratsnakes, bullsnakes, foxsnakes, gophersnakes, pinesnakes, milksnakes and kingsnakes. That's fine with me.

Regards
John

Yeah, I agree....the snakes themselves will always remain the same, regardless of any of their ever-changing latin names.

BTW,....like you mentioned, keeping genetic lineage, and locality data back then was VERY taxing on the lower back in F. Flintstone's day, as those stone tablets he chiseled his work on were extremely heavy and cumbersome!.............can you imagine what his file cabinet must have looked like?..LOL!!!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

stone tablets... gives new meaning to the term "hard copy"
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1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
0.1.0 Black Ratsnake
0.0.1 Texas Rat (tame)
1.0.0 Broad Banded Water Snake, Hypo
1.0.0 Black Bassador Retriever
2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Holy moly....I give up.
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Diego

The authors themselves have presented this proposal as merely an alternative nomenclatural interpretation of Burbrink & Lawson's proposal (lumping all Pantherophis spp. into Pituophis). It's based on the same data and the same dendrogram.

Personally, I think it stands a better chance because of the morphological distinctiveness of the proposed genera. I also think Mintonius is completely redundant.

Pantherophis, Pituophis, Scotophis... What difference does it make? The safest approach for hobbyists is to wait until the scientific community get it's act together. But things will inevitably change eventually.

I always cringe a little when I see Joe Collins' taxonomic suggestions. The guy has done a lot for herpetology, but he also has introduced a lot of unnecessary suggestions, seldom based on his own research, that only serve to further confuse things. Oh well, I doubt he's going to stop now.

Boy, do I agree with that!,....at least Joe Collins was accurate on his footnote regarding my occipitolineata specimen he has on his CNAH website.

South Florida Mole King

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

"I always cringe a little when I see Joe Collins' taxonomic suggestions."

Ditto that-only I cringe a lot. It's largely because this type of work is now considered valid herpetology that I decided not to pursue a PhD.