"What kind of carpet is this?"

[Mikoh4792]

Saw this on facebook and I thought it was worthy of sharing. This post addresses the confusion in regards to identifying carpet python types. In short, unless you have lineage information you can not really know.

This is copied from a post I made in a another group a few months ago on what seems to be the subject of the day here. Hopefully it can help explain some things to many of the people newer to carpets.

I typed this out today. It isn't directed at Butch at all, just a bit of education for anyone interested in carpets, and why it is so hard to identify many of them specifically. I am actually going to clean this up and save it, and post it online as an article. It seems many people are hesitant getting into carpets, because of the complexity of the taxa. At some point I will include a bit on al the morphs, the history of the founding animals of each, etc.

OK, I've had different conversations with people today regarding identifying carpet pythons, privately and publicly. So I thought I'd write up a quick tutorial, lol. And this is the "short" version.

The term “Carpet Python”, is generally applied to the subspecies of of Morelia spilota. Currently, the 6 recognized sspp are:

Diamond python, M. s.. spilota.
Jungle carpet python, M. s. cheynei
Coastal carpet python, M. s. mcdowelli
Irian Jaya or West Papuan Carpet python, M. s. harrisoni
Inland or Murray Darling carpet python, M. s. metcalfei
Darwin or Northwestern carpet python, M. s. varigata

There are a few other snakes that are included by some people, Bredl's pythons, Morelia bredli, is the most common, though this a fully separate species.

So all of the snakes you see posted as carpet pythons are the same species for the most part. This makes this species the most variable species of python in the world, and arguably the most variable species of snake in the world. Inside a single clutch of normal coastal carpets, the variety can be amazing. Start adding in morphs, and mixing the sspp, and it is all but impossible to definitively say what ssp a carpet is unfortunately, without lineage info.

Add to this, that the taxonomy is constantly under review and being changed. The genetic divergence in most of these sspp is very small. Obviously small enough to not deserve full sp status, some small enough to question whether ssp status is worthwhile, like jungles and coastals. Sometime in the not too distant future, someone is going to publish a paper suggesting merging M. s. cheynei & M. s. mcdowelli into the same ssp, and that jungles are a smaller coastal carpet that has adapted to the jungle/rainforest ecosystem. A locality in essence. I would all but bet my entire collection on it. Which will mean that all the intraspecific hybrids, or intergrades, or crosses, or whatever you'd like to call them, will suddenly be “pure” if that were to happen. Taxonomy is just us trying to understand what is out there.

And on top of all that, there are obviously morphs, which in almost all cases originated within one of the sspp. As jags started with coastals, a jungle jag is automatically assumed to be a jungle/coastal cross. Etc, etc. If the name of the morph is there, that sspp is assumed to be in the snake, with other sspp names then added. But of course you have to know all the morphs and where they originated.

Which leads to the question “What is my carpet”? The answer is, if you don't know the origins and lineage of the parents, noone will ever know. Which is fine. Anyone who is into carpets, and has seen enough can give you an educated guess. But that is all it will ever be. And most guys who really know much about carpets will tell you that.

Why does any of this matter? Well, let's say you breed an IJ to a coastal jaguar. Those animals will be 50% IJ/50% coastal. The half that do not receive the jaguar gene are now just “carpets”. A few of those will look a bit more IJ, a few more coastal, and most in the middle. If you were to take the most IJ in appearance, and breed it to an IJ, you would produce 75% IJ/25% coastal carpets. Again, some would look even more IJ, but most would still look off, and a few would obviously not be pure Irian Jayas. So if that 50/50 animal is sold by someone unscrupulous as an IJ just to drive a quick sale, then bred to an IJ, either the person buying it will be pissed off, or you now have more “IJ-ish” animals floating around, that will in turn produce more mixed up critters.

Which, in some way shape or form is responsible for almost all of the “What is my carpet python” questions. Which again, is fine. I am personally a firm believer in, if you like the snake, that is all that matters. I have mutts and hybrids myself, though in almost all cases I still know the lineage, at least to some extent. But, if you really want to know you have a jungle carpet, or a coastal carpet, you need to pay attention to the lineage of the animal.

Hopefully this makes some sense, and ask away if you have any questions

[MDT]

This is a great article and explains it very nicely. I've got one mutt and 3 (soon to be 4) carpets that I am comfortable with lineage info. The mutt is an amazing chill snake, I've had her for years....couldn't imagine her not being around. Again, it all boils down to "if you like the snake, then that's all that matters"....good line for sure.