The "Hoser review" of the genus Thamnophis...

[Stefan-A]

I feel that I should defend Hoser, because however misguided and flawed his thinking was, he was the least attempting to follow some scientific process. He thinks he gained the right to rename species by splitting up the established classes, which would be correct if he had evidence to back it up. Now the posts are blatantly taking the Michael.

I would have considered posting a defence, but with only a year's experience keeping snakes what would I know about anything?

I know that feeling and on that note, what evidence would you require? Thamnophis is apparently paraphyletic (Pyron et al. 2011), and that warrants some measures to sort out the classification. At least one species of the genus Adelophis appears to actually be misplaced and belongs to the clade that currently consists exclusively of Thamnophis. Whether that justifies the splitting of Thamnophis, instead of simple reclassification of the misplaced species, or renaming the entire genus Thamnophis as Adelophis, is not something I'm 100% certain of.

Fortunately, it's just a matter of convention. Even the silliest name suggestions have a chance of sticking, if people choose to use them, but the chances are better if the suggestion is based on some widely accepted convention.

[Invisible Snake]

Hey Mr. Hoser check out this link..

Boffins big blue over little croc | News | NT News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.au

[chris-uk]

Hey Mr. Hoser check out this link..

Boffins big blue over little croc | News | NT News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.au

Great link. I love the blunt, Australian reporting style. Can't imagine it being written that way on the BBC.

[kibakiba]

You should meet my Aussie friend, Chris... He's the bluntest of al blunt people. He's a cool friend to have too, cause he'll just say what he means.. No bull involved... Haha

[-MARWOLAETH-]

I think Mr Webb pretty much sums it up

[chris-uk]

I found another interesting article (it's fairly long, but many of the points that have come up in this thread are presented by professional, and they raise some points I'd not even considered):
http://pages.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/FWit/LittSerp.pdf

The sort of discussion we've seen here has been surrounding Hoser for many, many years.

[Steveo]

I found another interesting article (it's fairly long, but many of the points that have come up in this thread are presented by professional, and they raise some points I'd not even considered):
http://pages.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/FWit/LittSerp.pdf

The sort of discussion we've seen here has been surrounding Hoser for many, many years.

Wow. An article like that would shame any rational biologist into changing fields.

[Invisible Snake]

Sorry to bump this dead thread but I saw this being shared on FB lol

156272_460022040723171_2088685524_n.jpg

[gregmonsta]

Sorry to bump this dead thread but I saw this being shared on FB lol

156272_460022040723171_2088685524_n.jpg

Ahem .... LOL

[Greg'sGarters]

I honestly think that the genus should be left the way it is right now. And to add in my word, I think that removing a snake's venom glands is extremely cruel. People expect venomous snakes to eat without their venom, that's like if someone pulled out every single one of a humans teeth and wanted them to eat an apple.