Taxonomy is the system used by scientists to classify living organisms into similar or related groups. As science and technology advance and information increases, so do the methods used to determine the relationships between organisms. DNA analysis, something that wasn’t available years ago, is now more commonly used to determine how living organisms are related to each other. Earlier methods of classifying snakes still in use today include scale counts, bone structure, and other anatomical features. These methods can be confusing, because we generally don’t know which features were developed first or which are actually the most important in determining relationships. The advent of DNA analysis allows for much greater accuracy in classification.
All living organisms have two names: the common name and the scientific name. Common names are the familiar, everyday names of living things, such as dog, leopard gecko, and ball python. Scientific names are written in Latinized form; some of the names are truly Latin, while others are Latin versions of words from other languages. Most of the early scientific texts were written in Latin, and so when a species was named, the Latin language was used. Continued use of Latin persists, as this provides continuity between various scientific texts and journals. Regardless of the country you live in or the language you speak, the scientific or Latin name of a specific plant or animal will always be the same.
Ball pythons belong to the family Pythonidae, although some authorities consider them to be a subfamily of Boidae, the boas. This family is divided into eight genera (the plural of genus; genus is the level of classification just above species): Antaresia (Australian dwarf pythons), Aspidites (black-headed pythons and woma pythons), Bothrochilus (ringed pythons). Bismarck’s), Leiopython (white-lipped python), Liasis (olive python, Macklot, water pythons, and allies), Apodora (Papuan python), Morelia (carpet, diamond, green tree, Boelen, and amethyst pythons), and Python (Burmese, blood, rock, reticulated, and similar species). Ball pythons belong to the genus Python, which also contains the largest species of python in the world. The other members of the Python are the reticulated, African rock, Timorese, blood, Indian (including Burmese subspecies), and Angolan pythons. The Angolan python (P. anchietae) is the ball python’s closest relative. The ball python is the smallest member of this genus, rarely exceeding 6.5 feet (2 m) in total length.
The scientific name for the ball python is Python regius. Literally translated, it means “royal python”. (In Europe, P. regius is known as a royal python, while in the Americas it is called a ball python.) This little python may have gotten its scientific name in part because of the number of African tribes that worshiped it. In many areas of Africa, the snake is still considered a sacred animal. In some older literature, P. regius is known as the royal python.