New Morph, Tessera

New Morph, Tessera

Postby kingsnaker » Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:38 am

Hey guys check this NEW morph out...the info and pictures are from SMR..this baby is priced at $1200

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Pantherophis guttatus
NEW CORN SNAKE GENE / MORPH TESSERA --- This morph’s name derives from its lateral markings, which is reminiscent of mosaic pattern. Distinguishing features: 1. Striking lateral mosaic or tessellated pattern that is consistent from neck to tail 2. Dramatically continuous striping, compared to known striped corn mutations 3. Unlike motley types, strong presence of black retained in patterns 4. Visually similar to striped motley, but Tessera is not recessively inherited 5. Most have checkered bellies (virtually absent in motley types) 6. Remarkably little pattern deviation within the morph -- Long story short; in 2007, Graham Criglow and KJUN (KJ Lodrigue) acquired some intriguing corn snakes. These unusual corns appeared to be striped motley Okeetees, but the paradox was that the founding mutation was striped; not motley. These F2s were expected to be striped, since they were produced from striped x Okeetee corns. In addition, the conspicuous solid black scales in all Tesseras is remarkable, considering that even the slightest presence of black is rare (nearly unique) in motley types. Graham gave me a male, and I immediately began breeding trials. Early breeding results indicate that this is the first truly dominant-type pattern gene mutation in corns. In 2008, I bred a male phenotype to three normal-looking females, one being het for stripe, and two normal corns, het for no known mutations. In the first brood were Tesseras, Okeetees, stripes, and motlies; but no striped motlies. In the next two broods from two sister Okeetees having no familial mutant relatives, roughly 50% of the progeny were Tesseras, and all others were Okeetees. For the first time, KJUN will breed two phenotypes together in 2009, with hopes for the discovery of a super form. Keep in mind that our evidence at this time is from three pairings only, so further breeding trials are necessary to more accurately describe this mutation, and its mode of inheritance. Other than appearance, all physiology is classically cornsnake, though the pattern complex resembles that of other species (including pattern mutations in other species). Arguably, no obvious (or cryptic) hybrid markers have been observed. Besides having more solid black pattern attributes than motley types, their dorsal striping is atypical, (compared to striped and motley corns) via Tessera’s lack of pattern diversity and its uncharacteristic reproducibility. You never know how much striping you’ll get upon breeding striped or striped motley corns, but 85+% of all Tesseras have the same general volume of striping and lateral design. With very few line breaks in all progeny so far, the dorsal stripe begins at the neck, and extends back to the tail. Remarkable about this stripe is the general continuity, infrequency of breaks, and its extension to the tail tip in most specimens. Striping in motley-types only rarely extends to the tail, and almost never past the pelvic girdle region, onto the tail. The stripe configuration in Tesseras is like that of most striped motlies, (but unlike the motlies), the dorso-lateral stripes are bounded on the outer edges with a complementary black stripe, approximately the width of one scale. The width of the dorsal stripe is invariable in some, and erratic in others. Possibly the most dissimilar pattern feature (compared to motley types) is that most of the Tesseras so far, have classic corn snake belly checkering. Those that have little or no belly pattern, have a brightly-colored ventral-lateral (nearly contiguous) boundary line of markings.
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby ryanvinnroyal » Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:36 am

looks cool..
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby 10gbooj » Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:30 am

Very cool... One of the best looking corn morphs IMO
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby steve » Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:53 am

and soon we will have glow in the dark corn snakes! lol
vipers?
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby Bushviper » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:51 pm

Looks like a funny looking garter or ribbon snake. They only cost $10 and at a quick glance would look the same.
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby Wolf777 » Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:35 pm

I wonder how many more there are to come.Quite cool.
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby Copperbob » Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:24 pm

I reckon if you wait till next breeding season you could pick them up for $10.
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby lowflyingdaisy » Thu May 07, 2009 5:05 pm

Very beautiful, I love the striped ones. But I was wondering what the general feelings are about all this hybridisation with corns? Is there a 'pure & original' faction and a 'the more morphed the better' faction on this forum? :)
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby Chantel » Fri May 08, 2009 12:33 pm

They are absolutely beautiful!

Generally, hybridisation is frowned upon (I personally am not a fan of hybrids). But one must not confuse the various corn snake MORPHS with hybridisation - these are still pure corns, just a new morph.

The most common corn HYBRID is the creamsicle, as it is not pure corn. But all the other corn morphs are pure.
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby kingsnaker » Fri May 08, 2009 3:42 pm

Chantel wrote:The most common corn HYBRID is the creamsicle, as it is not pure corn.


Wow this came as a shock to me :!: :shock: :smt010 , I never knew that, so i own a hybrid after all, after i read this and when i asked ive been told that its half albino corn and half emroys rat, well basically its 75% corn(I always felt there was something funny about how my motely cream looked). I had to check if any of my other corns are hybrids to avoid any future shocks lol :smt011
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby lowflyingdaisy » Fri May 08, 2009 3:56 pm

Chantel, would you mind elaborating? I'm new to this and a bit confused as to what is hybrid and what is colour morph. Apologies if this has been covered previously, I haven't seen the thread.
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby boing » Fri May 08, 2009 4:11 pm

Hybrid is when you breed two different species together, whereas a morph is when you breed between two individuals of the same species. The morphs are really breeding out specific genetic traits and from there it gets into complicated genetic territory that I am not very good at explaining...
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby lowflyingdaisy » Fri May 08, 2009 4:24 pm

Thanks Boing, I am just busy reading up on them on Wikipedia! I think my original question really pertained to this mysterious genetic territory, and the viability of interbreeding, etc. There are so many corn snakes around that I'm sure there're a lot of substandard snakes out there that have been bred indiscriminately. What do you think?
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby StrangeCargo » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:12 pm

Hello Everyone, Graham from Strange Cargo Exotics ( www.scexotics.com ). I just wanted to update the Tessera information.

History:
In March of 2007 I purchased a trio of young odd looking “striped” cornsnakes that my friend KJ Lodrigue had seen for sale online. These animals had almost a striped-motley pattern, but still contained a fair amount of black within the striping. When they arrived, the 1.2 trio turned out to be a 2.1 reverse trio.
Working out-of-town for weeks at a time, I decided to send a majority of my collection to KJ (KJUN Snakehaven) on loan- including the “Striped Okeetee” project. We gave extra male to my friend Don Soderberg (South Mountain Reptiles). In 2008 our female wasn’t large enough to breed, but the male was bred an unrelated okeetee at KJUN Snakehaven.
Don, impressed with the unusual amount of black present on the “Striped Okeetee” male, bred it to multiple female okeetees in his collection. We expected “hets” from our breedings. Only a few (4 or 5 if I remember correctly) of KJ’s eggs hatched that year- all were “normal” okeetees. It wasn’t until a phone call from Don that we knew they were something special. Don was ecstatic- his clutches from the breedings contained ~50% normals and ~50% of the strange “Striped Okeetees”. Those results sparked this entire project. We decided to call these odd looking animals “Tessera” Cornsnakes. “Tessellate” means “to form a mosaic pattern” and “tessera” is one of the Latin roots for it.
Knowing that these were either a Co-Dominant or Dominant gene, in 2009 we bred our adult pair together to try and figure out another piece of this exciting puzzle. This small clutch produced mainly Tessera Corns and a few normals. Although there was no obvious “super” form, continued breedings will confirm this. For now we are calling these a Dominant gene.

What’s makes a Tessera different from other striped/striped motley corns?

KJ Lodrigue posted the following well written answer on an online forum:
“1. The black lines were obvious. These are never present on striped corns and are so rare on motleys that they can almost be ignored. The new snakes are more of a “lined” corn than a striped corn!
2. Lateral patterns were heavily checkered in a mosaic-like pattern. The best way to describe the lateral pattern is that is strongly resembles digital camouflage patterns. Normal stripes and motleys have the dorsal pattern absent or modified into a partial, thin, stripe.
3. Ventral scales were usually edged in black (similar to many “het bloodred” cornsnakes but darker and more obvious) and many had partial checkers over much of the ventral surface
4. Overall coloration was that of a NORMAL cornsnake. Striped and motley cornsnakes have a hypo-like appearance. These do NOT. They retain the beautiful coloration of a normal cornsnake while having a striped-motley like pattern with intricate sides.
5. The dorsal stripe was almost always complete from head to tail, and it does not yet seem to turn into a true motley or striped pattern when outcrossed. In most cases, the “stripes” above the spine are, at most, broken in only 1 or 2 small places.”

Future:
We consider ourselves very privileged to be working with this exciting new gene. This is the FIRST dominant gene to ever be discovered in cornsnakes. The future combinations are endless. Hopefully this will ignite new interest in the colubrid hobby!



I just updated the website www.scexotics.com with a bunch of new Tessera pictures. Hope this info helps.

Cheers,
Graham
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Re: New Morph, Tessera

Postby LeglessDragon » Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:01 pm

Beautiful looking corns!

Chantel, when we going to see these in your collection? Can see you wanting them.
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