Eos - my green tree pythons

(04-17-2012, 12:51 AM)Admin Wrote: I see you just updated the photo. I see, how red she was, now she is green. I never expected a snake can change color completely. Post more photos please, we can use a good one for the article section for snakes. You can also post some of your best photos and videos under the sticky thread on the top.

I will. I am working on an article now. All green tree pythons, morelia viridis, start out as red or yellow neonates, then undergo an ontogenetic colour change to their adult colours to, variety of shades of green, with yellow, white, black, and blue mixed in. The exact colouration depends mostly on the locality of the animals parents. And now there are a number of "designer" chondros, with people specifically breeding to get high blue snakes, high yellow snakes, black snakes, etc...

Here is a picture of my little yellow neonate. S/he is a few months old, a Jayapura x Lereh cross.



And the emerald tree boas, corallus caninus, also start off as red neonates, undergoing an ontogenetic colour change to their adult emerald green with white highlights. I think this is one of the coolest examples of convergent evolution in old world pythons and new world boas. There are some research papers out there suggesting the neonate colouration has developed based on the colours of the leaf litter, foliage, and flowers in the localities that they are from.