I'll take "predator" for $200 Alex

I would guess that the random patterning on a ball python is related to the whole predator/prey dynamic which seems to be a major driving force for dear old Mother Nature. Take any predator for example...lions are solid colored because their environment calls for it...they are ambush hunters that blend best into the low ground cover when they are solid buff in tone...tigers often hunt from a more forested environment and are striped as that is more effective in breaking up their pattern against higher bush/trees. I would assume then that ball pythons developed with their more scattered random patterning because that's what helped them survive being prey a lot of the time and allowed them to succeed as a predator over the history of their species.

As far as the morph genetics, look to dogs. All came from a wolf/wild dog type background but we have through human intervention and selective breeding produced both the chihuahua and the Great Dane. Given a chance to go "wild" again and randomly interbreed we'd likely end up with a mid-sized brownish dog much like the remaining naturally occurring wild dogs of the world who surprisingly all look very similar even if they are continents apart. Wild dogs are the "normals", Great Danes are the "morphs" (very simplistic way of dealing with a more evolved creature but makes sense to my non-biologist trained mind lol)



~~Jo~~