Ball Pythons

Now revised to Python regius, which has a very interesting/unknown history of when and where this python originated from. There are a few competing theories. None of which have substantial proof.
One theory is proposed by Underwood and Simpson (1990), says an original ancestor that originated from Asia migrated to Africa. A common ancestor that gave rise to our modern Curtus complex which consist of P. curtus, P. brongersmai, P. breitensteini, and most recently discovered P. kyaiktiyo. They hypothesize this is what gave us our modern P. regius and P. anchietae species. Then they theorized the second independent invasion happened with a larger species of python from Asia that gives us our two largest species of African pythons. P. sebae and P. natalensis. And a common ancestor that gave us our modern P. Molurus and P. bivittatus clades.

Now onto the Kluge theory. Kluge (1993) proposed an Australia-New Guinea origin for the pythons. In all analyses in his study, the genera Morelia and Python form the most derived clade within the family. Several of the phylogenies illustrated in his paper show P. regius paired with P. anchietae as sister species, while others pair P. regius with P. curtus as sister species. In the final analysis, Kluge lists all of the species within the genus Python as radiating from a common ancestor, recognizing that these are well-defined and independent lineages, and leaving the exact relationships within the genus unresolved.

I have personally worked with three out of the four African pythons species, but Dave and Tracy Barker have elaborated on a few general similarities between the four, between scalation, pattern, and behavior that implies to them that the African species may comprise a natural clade descended from one ancestor. Based on characteristics of scalation and behavior it seems most likely that P. regius Is the sister species to the other three African python species.

Ball Pythons have a very interesting defensive behavior relative to their common name given. Is compared to most other pythons which defend by biting, fling, Posing (typically with a gaped mouth), or spraying with musk. Ball pythons when felt threatened will curl up into a tight ball and its head in between its coils. I’ve personally have seen baby/juvenile ball pythons contract into a ball so fast, you would have missed it if you blinked. To the equivalent speed of an armadillo.

Ball python habitat: these pythons are found throughout West Africa all the way into central Africa.

My collection: I currently work with a wide array of different morphs of this species. My primary is to focus on the most though are the Puzzle gene and Tri-stripe gene and Wide range of different mutations within those two genes.