Quote Originally Posted by gmcclurelssu View Post
my question is this- who says that all ball python morphs are limited to coloration differences? just because breeders are selectively breeding for those colors, who says that there are not other traits that 'morph'? lets face it, based on body structure, there aren't that many visible traits we can use for spotting differences compared to dogs. there could easily be health traits in the wild that are still being naturally selected. how many other distinct morphs would breeders come up with if they weren't selecting for color, but rather other traits? blood hounds have a better sense of smell than many other breeds, and i would be willing to bet money that this is a trait that breeders could actively select for if you had a way to measure this sense. if people spent 500+ years breeding balls for these types of traits, it is possible the ball python species would be just as confusing as dogs are today.

100% Correct! Its not generally thought of in that sense. If ball pythons are kept for nearly as long as dogs have been as pets, by golly we might even see some different ball pythons down the road. Selective breeding is what its all comes down to, regardless of species.

All traits do not need to be visible for them to relate in the same manner that they do dogs. Comparing the two in the first place, is kind of a silly notion though. But hey. whatever.