Malayopython

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Malayopython
Temporal range: Pleistocene to recent
Python reticulatus setchatyi piton-2.jpg
Reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Pythonidae
Genus: Malayopython
Reynolds et al., 2014
Type species
Boa reticulata [ citation needed ]
Schneider, 1801

Malayopython is a genus of constricting snakes in the family Pythonidae. The genus is native to India and Southeast Asia. It contains two species, both of which were previously classified within the genus Python . However, multiple studies recovered these species as distinct. Known as the "reticulatus clade", it was eventually found to be sister to a lineage giving rise to the Indo-Australian pythons rather than the genus Python. [1] [2]

Contents

Taxonomy

In 1975, American herpetologist Samuel Booker McDowell divided the genus Python into a "molurus group" and "reticulatus group" on the basis of differences in supralabial pits (shallow diagonal slits in the latter, square or triangular in the former) and infralabial pits (shallow and not in a groove in the former, in a groove in the latter), as well as differences in the ectopterygoid and hemipenis. He added New Guinea members of Liasis and Morelia to the reticulatus group. [3] American zoologist Arnold G. Kluge performed a cladistics analysis on morphological characters and recovered a reticulatus lineage as a sister to the genus Python; hence not requiring a new generic name in 1993. [4] In a 2004 genetics study using cytochrome b DNA, Robin Lawson and colleagues recovered the reticulated python as a sister to the Australo-Papuan pythons, rather than Python molurus and its relatives. [5]

The Australian author and snake exhibitor Raymond Hoser erected the genus Broghammerus for the reticulated python in 2004, naming it after the German snake breeder Stefan Broghammer, on the basis of dorsal patterns distinct from those of the genus Python, and a dark mid-dorsal line from the rear to the front of the head, and red or orange (rather than brown) iris colour. [6] In 2008, Lesley Rawlings and colleagues reanalysed Kluge's morphological data and combined them with genetic material, and found the reticulated clade to be an offshoot of the Australo-Papuan lineage as well. They adopted and redefined the genus name Broghammerus. [7] R. Graham Reynolds and colleagues in 2014 also confirmed the clade's place as a sister to the Australo-Papuan pythons, but coined the name Malayopython rather than recognizing Broghammerus, stating that they considered Broghammerus to be "invalid" due to it originating from "non-peer reviewed writing that included no formal data or analyses". [8] They cited a 2013 publication by H. Kaiser and colleagues who had taken the position that Broghammerus and various other names proposed by Hoser (and one other author of Australian publications) "should not be used in herpetological nomenclature, pending suitable action by the ICZN" (the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature). [9] ICZN Commissioner Frank Krell later wrote in 2021 that Kaiser's publication was a "well-supported proposal" and that the voluntary decision by herpetologists to ignore and overwrite Hoser's names seemed the appropriate "way forward". [10] Malayopython has thus become the generally accepted name in the herpetological community by institutions such as IUCN, ITIS, and The Reptile Database.

Species

SpeciesImage IUCN Red List and geographic range
Reticulated python,
M. reticulatus (Schneider, 1801) [11] 		Python reticulatus setchatyi piton-2.jpg LC

Mainland Southeast Asia and the Malay Archipelago [12]

Timor python,
M. timoriensis (W. Peters, 1876) [13] 		Adult Lesser Sundas Python (Python timoriensis).jpg VU

Indonesia on the Lesser Sunda Islands of Flores, Lombien and Timor

References

  1. ↑ Figueroa, A.; McKelvy, A. D.; Grismer, L. L. [in French]; Bell, C. D.; Lailvaux, S. P. (2016). "A species-level phylogeny of extant snakes with description of a new colubrid subfamily and genus". PLOS ONE. 11 (9): e0161070. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1161070F. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161070 . ISBN   9780643106741. PMC   5014348 . PMID   27603205.
  2. ↑ Barker, D. G.; Barker, T. M.; David, M. A.; Schuett, G. W. (2015). "A review of the systematics and taxonomy of Pythonidae: an ancient serpent lineage" (PDF). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 175: 1–19. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12267 .{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ McDowell, S. B. (1975). "A Catalogue of the Snakes of New Guinea and the Solomons, with Special Reference to Those in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Part II. Anilioidea and Pythoninae". Journal of Herpetology. 9 (1): 1–79. doi:10.2307/1562691. JSTOR   1562691.
  4. ↑ Kluge, A. G. (1993). "Aspidites and the phylogeny of pythonine snakes". Records of the Australian Museum (Supplement 19): 1–77.
  5. ↑ Lawson, R.; Slowinski, J. B.; Burbrink, F. T. (2006). "A molecular approach to discerning the phylogenetic placement of the enigmatic snake Xenophidion schaeferi among the Alethinophidia". Journal of Zoology. 263 (3): 285–294. doi:10.1017/S0952836904005278.
  6. ↑ Hoser, R. (2004). "A Reclassification of the Pythoninae Including the Descriptions of Two New Genera, Two New Species, and Nine New Subspecies. Part II". Crocodilian - Journal of the Victorian Association of Amateur Herpetologists. 4 (4): 21–40.
  7. ↑ Rawlings, L. H.; Rabosky, D. L.; Donnellan, S.C.; Hutchinson, M. N. (2008). "Python phylogenetics: inference from morphology and mitochondrial DNA" (PDF). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 93 (3): 603–619. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2007.00904.x . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
  8. ↑ Reynolds, R. G.; Niemiller, M. L.; Revell, L. J. (2014). "Toward a tree-of-life for the boas and pythons: multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 71: 201–213. Bibcode:2014MolPE..71..201G. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.11.011. PMID   24315866.
  9. ↑ Kaiser, H.; Crother, B.I.; Kelly, C.M.; Luiselli, L.; O'Shea, M.; Ota, H.; Passos, P.; Schleip, W.D.; Wüster, W. (2013). "Best Practices: In the 21st Century, Taxonomic Decisions in Herpetology are Acceptable Only When Supported by a Body of Evidence and Published via Peer-Review". Herpetological Review. 44 (1). Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles: 8–23.
  10. ↑ Krell, Frank-Thorsten (2021-04-30). "Suppressing works of contemporary authors using the Code's publication requirements is neither easy nor advisable". The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 78 (1): 61–67. doi: 10.21805/bzn.v78.a021 . ISSN   0007-5167.
  11. ↑ Schneider, J. G. (1801). "Boa Reticulata". Historiae Amphibiorum naturalis et literariae Fasciculus Secundus continens Crocodilos, Scincos, Chamaesauras, Boas, Pseudoboas, Elapes, Angues, Amphisbaenas et Caecilias. Jenae: Wesselhoeft. pp. 264−266. (Boa reticulata, new species). (in Latin).
  12. ↑ Stuart, B. [in French]; Thy, N.; Chan-Ard, T.; Nguyen, T. Q.; Grismer, L.; Auliya, M.; Das, I. [in French]; Wogan, G. (2018). "Python reticulatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2018. IUCN: e.T183151A1730027. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T183151A1730027.en .
  13. ↑ Peters, W. P. (1876). "Serpentes". Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 1876 (August): 533–534. (Liasis amethystinus var. timoriensis, new variety). (in German).
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