This isn't a situation involving polyploidy. As far as we know all snakes have 36 pairs of chomosomes: 20 micro, 36 macro. Hybrids between python species occur successfully so often because of the similarities. Many of them are even fertile.Originally Posted by AntTheDestroyer
Truthfully how many super ball clutches have you seen? Here is one that could be easily confused for a ball by someone with little experience
I have seen some T. radix hybrids that look exactly like their parent, and isn't this the thing the entire anti hybrid crowd base their hysteria off of? In a polyploid situation you end up with the genetic information translated my mieosis from that specific pair is an exact copy of the parents dna. If the chromosome that codes for exterior looks is ball and the chromosome that codes for internal organs is blood then you end up with the situation the vet described. We are talking about a very specific combination that would likely not pop up often, and in general you would end up with animals that is a mix of the species.
I hear you and I admit that I don't know much about snake genitalia. It seems pretty hard to find pictures of blood python hemipenes. I think it would more strange if they were identical based off my experience with biology.
And its not the chromosome as one whole that codes for traits, its the alleles on the chromosomes that do. There are very many alleles that go into each trait that an organism possesses. Some hybrids may look more or less like one of the parents, but that goes for any organism, including those that are not hybrids.
And its highly likely that most python species have very similar hemipenes. Given that many can interbreed successfully and produce fertile offspring the reproductory organs must be similar.
I hope that this made some sense. If any of it is unclear or anybody has a question let me know!
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