The Garter Snake(book)

[ConcinusMan]

I think that's the outdated one isn't it? Seems to me that I already read that one front to back a dozen times before the 7th grade. Could be mistaken but I think there's a newer one. One written after some actual genetic testing was done of various species/subspecies to find their true relations.

[Mommy2many]

The older versions of written works have great value. Keep that in mind.

[RedSidedSPR]

I think i'll just wait for Steve's.

[Mommy2many]

Good idea.
I believe Steve will put alot of effort into making this a resource that you can enjoy.

[RedSidedSPR]

definitely looking for to it

[ConcinusMan]

The older versions of written works have great value. Keep that in mind.

Well of course they do. Gives good perspective on how our understanding of these animals has changed over the years. Just keep in mind when reading this book that a lot of ideas about the relationships between the various species/subspecies have since been proven to be wrong by DNA analysis. They didn't have that at the time and relied on outward appearances/morphological differences and similarities.

We now know that two very different garter snakes with completely different looks, many miles apart (can be on opposite coasts in fact) can be more closely related to one another than very similar snakes living very close to one another. DNA proves it.

For example, we know that all garter snakes are related but one might think that an infernalis is closely related to a SF garter based on location and morphology, but DNA proves that both of these species are fairly distantly related to one another. Each is more closely related to other garters that occur in other parts of the continent, (and look completely different) than they are to each other. There's no way they could have known that without DNA testing, which didn't take place until long after this book was written, so it's mostly speculation in this book.

A good read nonetheless. Just keep in mind that our understanding of them and our ability to prove things by DNA testing has changed dramatically since it was written.