Quote Originally Posted by MarkS View Post
I guess I'm really behind the times... Got lots of questions...

When did Retics get lumped into the genus Broghammeras?

When did Anacondas get split up into their own species rather then all being subspcies of Eunectes murinus?

When did African Rock pythons become two completely different species rather then two supspecies of Python sebae?

How widely accepted are these re-classifications amongst the majority of taxonomists?

What would happen if some taxonomist got a wild hair and decided that different populations of retics were really members of several closely related genus' and reclassified them under new taxa? Would certain populations then become legal again?
I think very few of these changes have actually been widely accepted by taxonomists. It's likely the USGS report only got its taxa information from a limited number of sources, likely the newest ones they could find, which aren't necessarily widely accepted. This list was basically taken directly from that report - in spite of the fact that all of these politicians have been informed that the report is biased, unscientific, and extremely poor basis for any legislation.

As far as I'm concerned, retics are still genus Python, and southern Afrocks are still Python sebae natalensis. I am not well-enough informed on anacondas to say any different about being the same species or subspecies. Actually I've yet to even see a photograph of a De Schauensee's or Bolivian anaconda, and know of none in the entire US.