Am I the only one who wants to see this picture of the supposed hybrid....??
As far as them being able to hybridize, I doubt it could it happen. The above reasons are all good reasons for such. I believe they are not closely related enough to be able to hybridize. They are from entirely different families so they are only in the same order and sub order..Squamata and Serpentes.
All of the hybridized animals I know of, have come from with in the same genus. A couple examples would be Muskie X Northern Pike, Lion X Tiger, Grizzly Bear X Polar bear, Ball Python X Blood Python. I am not familiar with any hybridization coming from the same Family but two different Genus. Not to say that it cant happen, I am just not aware of such of a thing.
Just to expound a bit on your above post, there have been hybrids outside of the genus. Python regius to Aspidites ramsayi has been done. It is called "the Wall". They are still both in the Pythonidae Family though.
With that said, I will not comment on wether or not the OP's hybrid could or could not be done, as I do not have enough knowledge to make an educated guess.
05-28-2013, 02:22 PM
Siphon
They aren't close enough genetically for this to be possible. "Pythons" can only successfully reproduce with other "pythons", "boas" with other "boas", and so on. But generally "boas" can't breed with "pythons" and most certainly cannot breed with pit vipers. It isn't a clear cut sort of thing, and usually comes down to the number of chromosomes the parents have. Kind of like why, despite all being from Canidae, a dog and a wolf can successfully reproduce but a dog and fox cannot. They don't necessarily have to be from the same genus though, like Muddoc said. But most certainly do have to be from the same family. There are "Walls" and King/Corn hybrids, etc... but they're from the same taxanomic family and/or tribe.
