Head patterns on clutchmates (pics)

I posted this on another forum, but I thought it would be fun here, too. Last year I took pics of all of my hatchlings, and I also got good head shots of two full clutches.

Here are the parents of one clutch. The Male normal has lots of "freckles" and a sloping angle on the front of the spearpoint. The female snow has a very thin head pattern, very thin connection between the front and back half of the pattern, and a long thin spearpoint on the front. Her features tend to dominate the clutch. (BTW, this clutch is the same pairing that produced the the carotene brothers)


Notice the following features in common amongst 9 out of the 11 hatchlings:


The two outlined in red are the ones that are different. Notice how much they instead resemble the father's head pattern in shape, and they are freckled like his.



The second clutch also has a lot of resemblance, and looks different than the first. The pics aren't as good, but the male amel has a simple "V," a broken center, and the rectangle on the neck. Notice the normal mother's freckling, shape of the front part, and the little "spikies" on the front and at 45's.


Out of 11 hatchlings, again 9 of them are very similar, with a couple of anomolies.


Interesting stuff, IMO.

Yeah, that's really cool. I always thought that head patterns were random but after this I guess I was wrong..
Lovely snakes!

Too neat. Thanks for sharing.
Ever notice how some corns have a shorter and more stubby head while others seem real elongated? (sp?) That's something else weird.

CornsnakeKeeper said:

Ever notice how some corns have a shorter and more stubby head while others seem real elongated? (sp?) That's something else weird.

Click to expand...

In basic training (where everyone had shaved heads) I noticed the same type of thing in people.

I have corns with the really short and really long heads. I remember there being noticable variation even in that first clutch I posted. The one on the upper left had a short head. I remember him because I really wanted to keep him... I love his "Klingon Bird of Prey" head pattern.

Silly Me!

Howdy All-

The whole reason I picked the amel I did was because of his head pattern. He has an incomplete spear point that looks like and angel with its wings spread. I am not the only one that sees the angel, when I put him on hold, the store owner wrote, 'the one with an angel on its head' on the hold slip. Pretty cool! Thus the name Angelbaby...

Will his head pattern remain the same as he matures? I sure hope so!

In Joy,
Angelbaby

what great pics

I always figured head pattern was somehow genetic. Also I liked the "Klingon bird of prey" head. Hehehe.

Head shots of a small clutch from last year.

Here is a picture of the head shots of a small clutch of anerys from last year. Mom (Anery) and Dad (Snow) are in blue. Of the babies, the two with hearts/spades as a head pattern are males, the other three are females. Interestingly enough, mom is a daughter of a fully zigged male and has one "z" in her pattern; the males in the clutch showed no zigging whatsoever, the girls all had partial zigging of at least 3 saddles in length sections. Now granted, an n=5 clutch is hardly statistically significant, but it was interesting to me. Anyway, enjoy!