18,000 years ago the sea level was about 390 feet lower (the last ice age) but in the past 6,000 warmer years the sea level has gradually risen to where it is today. Most of the coastal continental shelf areas along the Gulf side of Florida would have been land covered in land animals and potentially a type of kingsnake that would have either disappeared or gradually interbred and lost to the larger distribution of the Eastern type. I believe the remnants of the extinct type are seen from the light Brooks floridana types, to the lowland evenly speckled holbrooki and most evident in the genetics that remain most true in the purest of “Means”, the patternless types. The Holy Grail of Goini or Means is extinct and represented as a relic in the genetics we see that are still passed down in modern types. Just my theory on the whole thing.

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