Gray Rat Snake - Taxonomic Controversy

Taxonomic Controversy

While a taxonomic suggestion has been made to change the genus Elaphe to Pantherophis, and this suggestion has been taken up by the web community at large, most herpetologists do not accept the suggestion and Herpetological Review 2003 34(3) rejected the taxonomic change. One argument against the change is that the Russian study, which suggested it, was based on mitochondrial DNA evidence, not nuclear DNA; and thus no relevance to the reproductive and nuclear genetic relatedness of the genera can be inferred from the data.

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