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Simalia clastolepis (HARVEY, BARKER, AMMERMAN & CHIPPINDALE, 2000)

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Higher TaxaPythonidae, Henophidia, Pythonoidea, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Southern Moluccan python
G: Seram-Python, Goldpython 
SynonymMorelia clastolepis HARVEY, BARKER, AMMERMAN & CHIPPINDALE 2000: 158
Australiasis clastolepis — HOSER 2004
Australiasis clastolepis — HOSER 2009
Morelia clastolepis — DE LANG 2013
Simalia clastolepis — REYNOLDS et al. 2014
Simalia clastolepis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 452
Simalia clastolepis — BARKER et al. 2015: 13 
DistributionIndonesia (Ambon, Seram; likely on Haruku and Saparua).

Type locality: Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: UTA 44486, adult female; paratypes: UTA 
DiagnosisDiagnosis. A large species of Morelia distinguished from all its congeners by the following characteristics: (1) two to three pairs of enlarged, symmetrical parietals in contact medially or rarely separated by irregular and asymmetrical interparietals; (2) dorsal pattern nearly uniform in adults; diffuse pattern visible in juveniles; bands numerous though not countable because of fading on anterior half of body; (3) adults gray with black eyes or brown with bronze eyes; (4) neck bars absent; (5) postocular stripe visible only in neonates; (6) adults heavy bodied; reaching 3.8 m and 8.5 kg; (7) snout round in dorsal view; (8) ontogenetic color change pronounced in xanthic specimens, absent in axanthic specimens; (9) cephalic scales numerous and exhibiting derived conditions not seen in other scrub pythons such as suboculars and high numbers of ocular, interparietal, and labial scales (Table 2). Unlike all other scrub pythons, adult Morelia clastolepis lack postocular stripes. Neck bars are absent in adults and juveniles. Unlike M. nauta, M. castolepis is a robust (versus gracile) species with a rounded snout (versus acuminate). Unlike M. tracyae, the iris of this species is bronze or gray (versus red), and, when present, dorsal bands are narrow, faint, and visible only on the posterior one-third to one-half of the body and tail (bands wide, prominent, and visible throughout the body). One of the most distinctive features of this species is its unusual cephalic squamation. Morelia clastolepis is the only species of the genus that has suboculars. Several other meristic characters (number of postoculars, supralabials behind eye, interparietals) were more frequently high in this species than in other scrub pythons. (Harvey et al. 2000: 158)


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CommentThis species is closely related to M. amethistina.

Habitat: semi-arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after the Greek words “klastos” (meaning broken into pieces) and “lepis” (meaning scale), alluding to the fractured nature of the cephalic scales. Apparently based on the evolutionary species concept. 
References
  • Akeret, B. 2008. Gefahrenpotenzial Riesenschlangen. Reptilia (Münster) 13 (72): 4-12 - get paper here
  • Bär, R. 2005. Neuere Erkenntnisse zur Nomenklatur des Amethystpythons (Morelia amethistina (SCHNEIDER 1801)) und des Seram-Pythons (Morelia clastolepis (HARVEY et al. 2000)) sowie erstmalige Vorstellung einer weiteren Inselpopulation innerhalb des Morelia-amethist Elaphe 13 (2): 49-51
  • Barker, D. G., Barker, T. M., Davis, M. A. and Schuett, G. W. 2015. A review of the systematics and taxonomy of Pythonidae: an ancient serpent lineage. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 175 (1): 1-19; doi: 10.1111/zoj.12267 - get paper here
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Harvey, Michael B., David B. Barker, Loren K. Ammerman and Paul T. Chippindale 2000. Systematics of pythons of the Morelia amethistina complex (Serpentes: Boidae) with the description of three new species. Herpetological Monographs 14: 139-185 - get paper here
  • Lang, Ruud de 2013. The snakes of the Moluccas (Maluku), Indonesia. Edition Chimaira, 417 pp. - get paper here
  • Reynolds, R. Graham; Matthew L. Niemiller, Liam J. Revell 2014. Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: Multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 71: 201–213 [published online in 2013] - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
 
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