Editing Green tree python (section)

==Taxonomy==
German naturalist [[Hermann Schlegel]] described the green tree python in 1872 as ''Python viridis'',<ref>{{cite book|first=Hermann|last=Schlegel|author-link=Hermann Schlegel|year=1872|title=De Dierentuin van het Koninklijk Zoölogisch Genootschap Natura Artis Magistra te Amsterdam, Reptilia|location=Amsterdam|page=54}} (in Dutch).</ref> from two specimens collected in the [[Aru Islands Regency|Aru Islands]] of Indonesia.<ref name="AFD">{{cite web|url=https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/Morelia_viridis|title=Species ''Morelia viridis'' (Schlegel, 1872)  |author=Australian Biological Resources Study|date=1 March 2017|work=Australian Faunal Directory|publisher=Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government|access-date=20 June 2017|location=Canberra, Australian Capital Territory}}</ref> His countryman [[Adolf Bernhard Meyer]] erected the genus ''Chondropython'' (though recognised similarity to ''[[Morelia_(snake)|Morelia]]'') and described the green tree python as ''Chondropython azureus'' in 1874,<ref>{{cite journal|first=Adolf Bernhard|last=Meyer|author-link=Adolf Bernhard Meyer|title=''Eine mitteilung von Hrn. Dr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer über die von ihm auf Neu-Guinea den Inseln Jobi, Mysore und Mafoor im Jahr 1873 gesammelten Amphibien ''|journal=Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin|year=1874|volume=1874 |pages=128–140 [134]|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36626432}} (in German).</ref> from a specimen collected in "Kordo", later determined to be Korido on [[Biak]] Island. This was destroyed in World War II.<ref name=barker2015/> French naturalist [[Henri Émile Sauvage]] described ''Chondropython pulcher'' from a specimen from [[Mansinam Island]], Irian Jaya.

For many years, the green tree python was classified as the [[Monotypic taxon|only species]] of the genus ''Chondropython'', with the binomial name ''C. viridis''. In 1993, Professor [[Arnold G. Kluge]] published a detailed phylogenetic analysis that found that the green tree python was nested within the genus ''Morelia'' and most closely related to the [[rough-scaled python]] (''M. carinata'').<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kluge|first=Arnold G.|author-link=Arnold G. Kluge|title=''Aspidites'' and the phylogeny of pythonine snakes|journal=Records of the Australian Museum|year=1993|doi=10.3853/j.0812-7387.19.1993.52|pages=1–77 [45]|url=https://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/journals/16847/52_complete.pdf|volume=19|access-date=2017-06-22|archive-date=2016-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160922185943/http://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/journals/16847/52_complete.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Hence, it became ''Morelia viridis''. Two studies of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA published in 2013 and 2014 came up with differing results, one confirming the species in ''Morelia'', the other placing it as an early offshoot with the Children's python genus ''[[Antaresia]]''. This latter result was thought anomalous by later researchers.<ref name=barker2015>{{cite journal | last1=Barker |first1= David G.|first2= Tracy M. | last2=Barker |first3= Mark A. | last3=Davis |first4=Gordon W. | last4=Schuett | title=A review of the systematics and taxonomy of Pythonidae: an ancient serpent lineage | journal= Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=175 |issue= 1 |year=2015|pages= 1–19 | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274892692 | doi=10.1111/zoj.12267|doi-access=free }}</ref>

[[Raymond Hoser]] described the Australian population as a separate subspecies ''Chondropython viridis shireenae'', after his wife Shireen, noting that the taxon consistently had white markings along the backbone, whereas snakes from New Guinea and Indonesia only sometimes had this trait, and the molecular analysis would bear out the distinctness.<ref>{{cite journal | last= Hoser |first= Raymond | year= 2003 |title= Five new Australian pythons |journal= Newsletter Macarthur Herpetological Society |issue= 40|pages= 4–9 |url=http://www.smuggled.com/PytRev11.htm}}</ref> A genetic study by Lesley Rawlings and Stephen Donnellan in 2003 of mitochondrial DNA of the green tree python found two distinct lineages: a southern lineage comprising populations of Australia, the Aru Islands, and New Guinea south of the central highlands, and a northern lineage of New Guinea north of the central highlands and the [[Vogelkop Peninsula]], and Biak Island. The two likely diverged around 5 million years ago with the rising of the central mountain range in New Guinea. The authors suggested this might explain poor breeding success in Australia if people were unknowingly trying to breed the northern and southern green tree pythons, as they were not closely related. The two taxa are indistinguishable in appearance.<ref name=rawlings03>{{cite journal|last1=Rawlings|first1=Lesley H.|first2=Stephen C.|last2=Donnellan|author-link2=Steve Donnellan (scientist)|title=Phylogeographic analysis of the green python, ''Morelia viridis'', reveals cryptic diversity|journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume=27|issue=1|year=2003|pages=36–44|doi=10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00396-2|pmid=12679069}}</ref>