Please Help Identify My Morph, Thanks

[SteveDLS]

Hello all,
Could you please help me identify my morph. I bought this girl on Craigslist and she has alot of old scars from what look like heat rocks. I purchased a Bumble Bee about month ago from same person and this community helped me identify his wound as an old scar from a burn. Her scars look similar except that there are alot more black to them; almost like burned rubber smeared on her but these are definitely old scars and not why I need the help. I am confident that the scars are from burns and are old. What I really need help with is identifying her genes. When I picked her up and noticed her unique coloring right away and was told that she looks like that because she is Het Albino. I know that recessive genes do not show physical traits unless there are homozygous not heterozygous. I bought her anyways knowing that even though she may be het for albino she is definitely not a normal ball python. I know the camera cannot pick up the colors like the eye but where normal ball pythons are brown she is greenish and where normal ball pythons are black she is brown. I have spent countless hours trying to identify this myself because this is a skill I want to learn but I just cannot figure this out. I need help from the pros. Thanks in advance for all the help and comments.

[Eric Alan]

Some recessive genes actually do have a tendency to influence pattern/color in their het form. While not a reliable way for the average person to say with certainty the difference between a normal and a het, these markers can be used as possible indicators of a recessive gene in play. My guess is that is what is going on to cause you to think there's something else going on here.

From what I've read, the white coloring you see coming up from the belly around the alien heads is typical of het albinos. No way to know for certain until you breed her and prove it out though.

[SteveDLS]

Some recessive genes actually do have a tendency to influence pattern/color in their het form. While not a reliable way for the average person to say with certainty the difference between a normal and a het, these markers can be used as possible indicators of a recessive gene in play. My guess is that is what is going on to cause you to think there's something else going on here.

From what I've read, the white coloring you see coming up from the belly around the alien heads is typical of het albinos. No way to know for certain until you breed her and prove it out though.

Thank you for this information, I was not aware of this. From Biology 101, most het genes are not physical traits; but text books are not 100% accurate and what happens in application happens despite the text books. So, once again thanks for the knowledge. The only reason I thought something else was involved was because the odd coloring. But at least seemed odd to me . Trying to learn as I go and she just looks so non typical but I guess she could just very well be a normal who happens to show a little het for albino! Thanks again. Does anyone else concur or have any other comments? Thanks everyone.

[kc261]

Something that stood out to me more than her color (mostly cuz I know that color in a photo on a computer monitor is highly unreliable so it's the last thing I look at when playing the id-this-morph game) is that some of her dark spots have blurry outlines. It isn't like something I've never seen before, but it isn't really common either.

But, I don't really see anything that indicates to me she is a morph. Maybe something unproven or one of the subtle ones, but not one of the ones I know and could ID from a photo on the internet.

The problem with the terms recessive, dominant, codominant and incomplete dominant are that they are things that were made up by humans to try to describe what they saw in nature. They aren't perfect. There may well be recessive traits where being het for it shows absolutely no trace in any animal that is het for it. But, that doesn't mean whoever labeled albino BPs as recessive was correct. Maybe it really is codom but the difference is so subtle in most animals we haven't learned to recognize it yet. I think it is more likely that it just doesn't fit either definition. For it to be codom, all animals het for it have to show the codom form. For it to be recessive, all animals het for it have to show absolutely no influence. But we are learning that there are lots of genes that fall between those 2, with the influence being able to be seen in some animals that carry it, but not all of them.

[SteveDLS]

Something that stood out to me more than her color (mostly cuz I know that color in a photo on a computer monitor is highly unreliable so it's the last thing I look at when playing the id-this-morph game) is that some of her dark spots have blurry outlines. It isn't like something I've never seen before, but it isn't really common either.

But, I don't really see anything that indicates to me she is a morph. Maybe something unproven or one of the subtle ones, but not one of the ones I know and could ID from a photo on the internet.

The problem with the terms recessive, dominant, codominant and incomplete dominant are that they are things that were made up by humans to try to describe what they saw in nature. They aren't perfect. There may well be recessive traits where being het for it shows absolutely no trace in any animal that is het for it. But, that doesn't mean whoever labeled albino BPs as recessive was correct. Maybe it really is codom but the difference is so subtle in most animals we haven't learned to recognize it yet. I think it is more likely that it just doesn't fit either definition. For it to be codom, all animals het for it have to show the codom form. For it to be recessive, all animals het for it have to show absolutely no influence. But we are learning that there are lots of genes that fall between those 2, with the influence being able to be seen in some animals that carry it, but not all of them.

Thank you so much for this comment; very well stated, VERY WELL STATED!

[beartg]

I think she could be a Burgundy ball: http://www.ralphdavisreptiles.com/co...all_python.asp
http://snakesnmoresnakes.blogspot.hu...ll-python.html

[Eric Alan]

I think she could be a Burgundy ball: http://www.ralphdavisreptiles.com/co...all_python.asp
http://snakesnmoresnakes.blogspot.hu...ll-python.html

No. Just no.

[beartg]

No. Just no.

Do you care to explain why not?

[Eric Alan]

Do you care to explain why not?

On the RDR page, did you read his own description of the new morph? Among other things, in Ralph's own words - "These guys lack black totally!!!". This animal does not fit that description.