Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What do you think of Blaney's theory about SPLENDIDA being the PARENT getula of ALL other getula? Meaning what ALL other getula evolved from. thanks in advance

...history....but suggest its balarny....ha get it...Blaneys full of balarny...mebbe it'd be funny to an irishman!
the rootstock getulus...is alice in chains....ahrite ahrite...Ill stop there...

Dude,
The word is blarney!!! Some of us Irish don't have a sense of humor!!!!!LOL GO NOTRE DAME!!!!

Pat

I LOVE ALICE in CHAINS, esp. the guy in the box.

ROOSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Down in a hole!

WOULD!
Many many more.....LOL
John Lassiter

LOL! i thought you were a old man like me, what are you doing listening to that kid stuff, everyone knows Tony, Geezer, Bill and Ozzy are the true MASTERS of music!

OK, OK, I admit it--I'm an old Irish f@&$!!!!! But I gotta tell you Jetzen I may not know music but I do know a good lookin' snake when I see it and that mex mex is sweet!!!!

Pat

Thanks brother, not be nosy but you ain't in to that "RATTLESNAKE RELIGION" are ya? please forgive my curiousity.

Naw, I'm not that radical!!! Besides we are told not to temp the Lord!!!LOL In 40 years I've handled several hundred Rattlers, including some really biggun's here in Texas, but never in a religious service or way, and I have yet to get bitten! Have come mighty close though!!! In my experience you get bit when you don't use your head and show a lack of respect for the critter! The scars I have from 12' pythons continue to remind me of this truth!

Pat

Iv'e kept a few viridis,a ret. and a burm. sometimes i think about messing around with them again but can't seem to escape from the world of common kings,lol!

One of the things that doesn't seem to be too cool here is the notion that people grow and change. When I first started I tried to get every Python available. Of course there were no CB Pythons so you took your chances. So I got bit by just about every type of Python you can imagine! Same with Boas. Now I would never keep a Boidae that grows to more than 8 feet. I just don't believe it's right. But that's for me. Same with wild stock. I use to rape and pillage with the best of them. Now I would only take from the wild that which I believe might be established through breeding. I get out whenever I can. I have gotten about 100 snakes a year off the road the last eight years and never brought any home. And I found numerous others while out tromping around. Found some really fine specimens but left them there. I wish I could take pictures like Keith, Phil, Tom or Frank but it aint going to happen. As a Pastor my hobby has to pay for itself so I maintain a collection of 40 Pits and Kings and I don't have $$$ for pics but I thank God for those that do. I also came to believe that unethical collecting is wrong. But here again we are free to make choices. Personally, as far as collecting goes, I'm closer to Phil and Sean in philosophy than anyone else. But this has been a radical change over my past. Point--everyone changes just as our charges do and variety is, afterall, the way of things. By the way Jetzen, Love the speckled!!!

Pat

Thanks for reminding me of what the hobby was like in the 60's-70's, nowdays the hobbyist is much better off but it's a shame we lost so much prime habitat and much more is gonna be lost.

Considering the fact that many professional herpetologists consider that Mexico was the parent ground of a lot of Lampropeltis (and other species,I think it is a very reasonable hypothesis. When you consider the patterns of getula subspecies, it seems that the more southern forms are the more speckled ones with the exception of nigritis. Now of course, DNA is the test that scientists use for systematics rather than color and pattern. It seems more sense to me that snakes radiated out of Mexico rather than down from Northern North America, but none of us were there back then, so who knows. The primitive forms of Pituophis(lineaticolis, for instance)in Mexico are very like subocs in pattern. Could it be that they are only recently diverged genera? I find it very interesting though.
Jim

Thanks Jim, you're reply is the kind i was hoping for, I'm gonna get more info by Blaney he may realize alot of stuff that others don't.

Living in Baton Rouge, I knew Rick Blaney when he was here at LSU doing that dissertation. In fact, he was the TA at my first Zoology class at LSU. I know that he put a lot of work into his hypothesis,, but it is just that, a hypothesis. Back when he did that work, it was mostly counting scales, etc rather than biochemical analysis of DNA. He and Kenneth Williams, who did his work on triangulum both went to LSU at about the same time. The newest work out of LSU was DNA stuff about Elaphe obsoleta. That work gives a very different picture of relationships than the phenotypic work of old. Reading "Herp Review" and "Copeia" articles can give you a wealth of information as can other publications such as "Southwestern Naturalist". I hope this helps.
Jim

Thanks again, One thing that interests me about slendida,nigrita and californae is the possibility that these three are much more closely related to each other than what we think. I'd like to see a DNA project about this.

I've also heard rumor that Mex Blacks are from Splendida stock.
However...

Note that at each end of the continent they look similar. Black & white, ususally banded. The more inland or south you go, the more vaiation from the original color & pattern.

It's also possible that a Cal King or Eastern is the parent stock from which all others derive. Several things are possible.

i believe what i want until proven wrong.