Ball vs. Royal python

americanised galwegian kid

meh



LOL :P

lisafay wrote:Also, lately i notice Irish youngsters (!) calling pythons pyTHONS with emphasis on the second syl.
Also albinos are now albEYEnos instead of albeenos.
When I hear an Irish person say albEYEno ball pyTHON it makes me giggle, call me pathetic

Lisa, just looked it up and it depends where you come from, I guess. Here are two sites with the two different pronounciations. It's a "You say tomato, I say tomahto" thing. Data, Dahta etc...

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As for Ball Vs Royal, I tend to use Royal as that's typically what most people say over here. I'll agree with
reptile ni and use my balls when appropriate. ;-)

I generally use Scientific names when describing my T's but have recently been told to use the common names because 'lay' people prefer it that way. I've not met one person working in a pet shop (at least where I live) that can either tell me the scientific names nor use them, it's common all the way and it changes so frequently. You'd be surprised what 'Pink toe' refers to in the midlands!

I hate misunderstandings so I always use the scientific names (which I agree does not have to be a direct translation of the common name of whoch there can be many for the same sp.). In snakes keeping as a somewhat newcomer, I've yet to told in a conversation the scientific name of a snake in a conversation. It seems common names are more popular but then again with all the morphs out there, especially in the Royal Python mix, using the scientific name wouldn't describe it accuratly, hence the Spider, Mojave, Albino etc names for descriptive purposes?

It's just local dialect based on Hiberno English and American English I reckon (the latter more so). My father says al-BI-no sometimes and I would find I do too in other yanks company where I tend to find my accent dragging a little but around other Irish folk it's Albeeno but as Don says same terms can mean something totally different dependant on where you are (and I pmsl at that one Don )

Its scientific names I prefer with certain things too, although a lot of people can't even agree on those either and they do change from time to time e.g. the old 'Elaphe guttata' and 'Python reticulatus' are a thing of the past. As if it all wasn't confusing enough!

morelia wrote:Its scientific names I prefer with certain things too, although a lot of people can't even agree on those either and they do change from time to time e.g. the old 'Elaphe guttata' and 'Python reticulatus' are a thing of the past. As if it all wasn't confusing enough!

Well said young (ish) Karl! Funny thing though, if animal folk (with the possible exception of invert keepers) use scientific names then they're sometimes referred to as being smart a***s by certain muppets within the animal-keeping community; yet, if a gardener uses scientific names for plants then they are deemed 'to know their stuff'. A strange little planet we live on!

'tis indeedy strange alright - I guess it all depends on an individual person's thirst for knowledge and level of interest.

For me the scientific name adds another dimension to understanding plants, animals etc.....its even interesting how some things get their scientific names and tells a story of where they live, their appearance, who studied them etc.

Back on topic.....for me its alBEEno Royals all the way LOL....Americanising things just cracks me up, unless of course you have American relatives or blood. Its like the golfer Graham McDowell, he does my head right in. Does he speak with a North Antrim accent or an American accent? Apparently he conjured up his interesting accent when he started his golf internship in the States as it helped him pull......yeah right.

morella, I agree with you. Even the scientific names can be misleading, for example the Grammostola rosea (Chillean Rose) was previously named Grammostola spatulata.

Also to add to the confusion, there are different colour morphs ncf - normal colour form and rcf - red colour form. Previously it was a contentious point in the hobby if they were the same subspecies or not.

It wasn't until the two differnt colour morphs appeared within the same egg sac that this was laid to rest.

moloch gibbon wrote:...Funny thing though, if animal folk (with the possible exception of invert keepers) use scientific names then they're sometimes referred to as being smart a***s by certain muppets within the animal-keeping community; yet, if a gardener uses scientific names for plants then they are deemed 'to know their stuff'. ...

This exact thing happened to me previously ironically by the most pedantic person I've ever known (and I know pedantic!). *sigh* We just can't win sometimes.

I love that word lol





Pedantic


Also, they should stop changing the names, whos decision is it anyways?how is the name changed?

JoeR wrote:Also, they should stop changing the names, whos decision is it anyways?how is the name changed?

I'd like to know how also. I assume it is at some scientific community meeting upon submitted evidence from grass roots members and based on a vote. Can anyone verify this?

Why they change is understandable and I think these lines explain it all:

"Although unique, a scientific name may change. As improved methods of research provide scientists with more information on a species' evolutionary relationships, their scientific name is sometimes changed to reflect this better understanding."

It also appears that the "International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is the organization that creates and maintains rules for names and name changes for animals."

morelia wrote:.Americanising things just cracks me up, unless of course you have American relatives or blood. Its like the golfer Graham McDowell, he does my head right in. Does he speak with a North Antrim accent or an American accent? Apparently he conjured up his interesting accent when he started his golf internship in the States as it helped him pull......yeah right.

Funny I also hate to hear him speaking for the very same reason (an Americanised North Antrim accent), lets hope Rory (McIlroy) doesn't go down the same road!
Now what was this topic all about!

As science progresses and we learn new and more accurate ways to determine how closely or distantly related different species are, so current relationships change. Whereas in the past we relied heavily on anatomical and behavioural charactreristics; nowadays most emphasis is on genetic studies - called phylogenetics.

An example is the relatively recent revision of reticulated python taxonomy - once known as Python reticulatus, it was determined that it wasn't as closely related to other species in the genus Python as previously thought, so it was assigned a new genus name to reflect this - Broghammerus. So the old name of Python reticulatus becomes Broghammerus reticulatus.

Because the above example essentially created a new genus by the splitting of an old one, this practice is called SPLITTING; when the reverse happens this is called LUMPING.

Karl in regards to taxonomy who is responsible for any changes made?

For fauna its the ICZN - the International Council for Zoological Nomenclature (or something to that effect), although I'm sure other organisations exist that serve a similar function.

Anyone can conduct a taxonomic study to provide evidence for a review of the taxonomic status of a species or group, but its the ICZN who would officiate any changes that are deemed correct. Raymond Hoser tried to change the taxonomy of loads of Aussie snakes, most notably all of the pythons, but his methods are widely regarded by most to be invalid and as far as I know the only changes he proposed which held any weight at all with a good number of taxonomists was separating the Irian Jaya / Papuan carpet python from the other subspecies, and splitting the Black and the Gold (or Southern and Northern)forms of White-lipped python into distinct species, one of which was rather humbly named Leiopython hoserae LOL.

I know, I'm a geek, but this stuff interests me.

Cheers Karl, that question has been rattling round my head for a while

+1
Thanks!

morelia wrote:As science progresses and we learn new and more accurate ways to determine how closely or distantly related different species are, so current relationships change. Whereas in the past we relied heavily on anatomical and behavioural charactreristics; nowadays most emphasis is on genetic studies - called phylogenetics.

An example is the relatively recent revision of reticulated python taxonomy - once known as Python reticulatus, it was determined that it wasn't as closely related to other species in the genus Python as previously thought, so it was assigned a new genus name to reflect this - Broghammerus. So the old name of Python reticulatus becomes Broghammerus reticulatus.

Because the above example essentially created a new genus by the splitting of an old one, this practice is called SPLITTING; when the reverse happens this is called LUMPING.

Excellent post morelia!

My apologies for injecting some humour after such an informative post but I just couldn't help laughing aloud when I (mis)read Broghammerus. I read it as Boghammerus which instantly reminded me of Brian Cowen and Boggerhammeringus.

i flip between royal and ball python altho probly use ball more. i usually say albino with the 'i' like eye as well.

I love latin/greek/scientific names, because very often they tell you something about the animal, or at least it did with dinosaurs. I was a complete dino-nut as a kid, and from constantly reading translations of their names I picked up a good bit of greek and latin.
Triceratops. Tri-three Cera-Horn Tops-face. Pretty much sums the animal up in one.
Carnotaurus- Meat eating bull. The name comes from the two bull like horns on the animals head.
Baryonyx- Bary-heavy onyx-claw. If you had to mention one distinguishing feature of baryonx, it would be that it sported one big-assed claw.
I'm not as good with Latin as I am with Greek which is a shame, but once you pick up a few bits and pieces it gives you anther level of understanding.
As for the whole Royal vs Ball debate...I'm a Royal guy, but I see the benefit of common names, and as far as they go, Ball python is a good one due to the fact that it tells you something about the animal. I can tell my Crotallus atrox from my Crotallus oreganus but it's handy for your average Tom, Dick or Harry to be able to ID it as a Rattlesnake and know that they should ALL be treated with the same caution regardless of the species.