Malayopython

Malayopython is a genus of constricting snakes in the Pythonidae family 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 a sister lineage to a lineage giving rise to the Indo-Australian pythons rather than the genus Python.[1][2]

Malayopython
Reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Pythonidae
Genus: Malayopython
Reynolds et al, 2014

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]

Raymond Hoser erected the genus for the reticulated python in 2004, naming it after German snake expert 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 Kruge'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]

Reynolds and colleagues also confirmed the clade's place as a sister to the Australo-Papuan pythons and coined the name Malayopython.[8]

Species
SpeciesImageIUCN Red List and geographic range
Reticulated python M. reticulatus (Schneider, 1801)[9] LC

Mainland Southeast Asia and the Malay Archipelago[10]

Timor python M. timoriensis (Peters, 1876)[11] NE

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

References
  1. Figueroa, A.; McKelvy, A. D.; Grismer, L. L.; 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.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. (2004). "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.
  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. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.11.011. PMID 24315866.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. 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.
  10. Stuart, B.; Thy, N.; Chan-Ard, T.; Nguyen, T. Q.; Grismer, L.; Auliya, M.; Das, I.; Wogan, G. (2018). "Python reticulatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2018: e.T183151A1730027. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T183151A1730027.en.
  11. Peters, W. P. (1876). "Serpentes". Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (August): 533–534.
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