What's black and blue and red all over?

[OuZo]

A freaky GTP!

Taken from http://p219.ezboard.com/fmoreliaviridisfrm1.showMessage?topicID=2763.topic

 

[ben1200]

whats black and blue and red all over

Thats a freaky looking snake

 

[Kenshin]

RE: whats black and blue and red all over

i think ull find thats an emerald tree boa

 

[Kenshin]

RE: whats black and blue and red all over

my bad... it looks alot like some of the emerald tree boa pics iv seen

 

[OuZo]

RE: whats black and blue and red all over

i think ull find thats an emerald tree boa

It's from a Morelia Viridis forum

 

[Gilleni]

this is an emerald tree boa..

 

[NCHERPS]

I Prefer the original look personally.

 

[ether]

I Prefer the original look personally.

Have to agree

 

[Gilleni]

so do i, i was just trying to find an emerald tree boa that looked similarly freaky...

how are they different to GTP's?

 

[basketcase]

how are they different to GTP's?

this was covered in a thread not long ago.

basically... greens pythons, as aposed to boas, are egg layers and greens have a smaller head

im still trying to figure out how two species that diverged, but still live in similar habitat opted for two different methods of reproduction

 

[NCHERPS]

Emerald tree boa's are live bearers as I am sure you are aware, they have heat pits in both upper and lower lips, they are more arboreal then GTP's and are found in South America, the photo of the one above is from Guyana, SA.
The white marks are usually alot more prenounced in Emeralds than in GTP's, as can be seen in the photo above.
The young are usually Orangey red or Greeny blue.

Neil

 

[Jason]

dont mean to be rude to the owner of that gtp but it's pretty ugly, the normal ones are 100x more attractive

 

[Retic]

That's a great looking snake. I love GTP's, any colour I don't care.

 

[Jason]

i love GTP's and i would love to eventually get one but that one just doesn't seem very appealing to me.

 

[Guest]

Im with you Jas, i reckon its truly ugly.

 

[NCHERPS]

Im with you Jas, i reckon its truly ugly.

It will look nice once it has had it colour change I am sure.
Reading the thread it came from, it might also carry the albino gene, at least that's what the owner believes to be the case from it's history.

Neil

 

[Guest]

yeah im not a huge fan of the colours they go through to get to their adult colours. And yeah, having the albino gene would be like a lottery ticket waiting to go off!!!!

 

[Hickson]

im still trying to figure out how two species that diverged, but still live in similar habitat opted for two different methods of reproduction

It's because Green Trees and Emerald Trees are not the two species that diverged. That suggestion implies that the two species are very closely related, which they aren't.

The divergence happened millions of years ago, with boas being live-bearing and pythons laying eggs. Over time many different species of python evolved, and many different species of boa evolved, each species adapting to the environment it lives in. Because Green Tree Pythons and Emerald Tree Boas come from very similar habitats in different parts of the world, they have evolved very similar characteristics including their colouring. Very loosely speaking, you could say that the same snake evolved twice - once in PNG/Australia and the other in the Americas.

The technical term for this is 'convergent evolution'.



Hix

 

[basketcase]

cheers for that hix. i always get di and con mixed up... mainly because i consider one to be the other and visa versa.

from my understanding they were both once the same species on gondwana/pangea what u want to call it... when land masses separated they evolved separately to each other to fill "similar" niches, hence similar phenotype but different method of reproduction.

i may be way off but i think some part of that^ is right. fill me in if it isnt

 

[Retic]

It's the same as our Green treesnake and say one of the numerous Asian or African vine snakes and treesnakes. They look similar and have very simialr habits but those similarites are for a good reason, being green is a very good idea if you live in a tree and hunt birds, you blend in and it makes sense. The GTP and the Emerald Boa look superficially similar because they both evolved to do the same job and fill the same niche but are only loosely related.