"In my opinion the position the Portuguese Authorities is (legally) weak"

-don't count on it. In alberta here they say any "poisonous" snakes, lizards and reptiles. They've tried to overturn it cause of the venom vs poison debate but they basically said "yeah well we MEANT this...here are your fines."



When (date, if possible) were the Pythons "separated" from the Boids as regards their taxonomic (sp?) classification ? Was it after 1993.01.01 ?

EMBL Heildelburg site: THE REPTILE DATABASE (it's fully back up may 14 they say...they will be able to tell you if you look it up). You might be able to find some info here: Catalogue of Life : 2007 Annual Checklist : Search Just look up your family and it should have info and such. Just and FYI: In the ophidians, according to the molecular biology guys at EMBL, pythons and boas are in the boidae still and this thing is up to date...however Zug et al (2001) say clearly in a phylogeny that boids and pythonids are in a polytomy but are infact distinct. This is a good place to look (pages 515-516) as it has a plethora of references which you could look up at any university. Alot of the work seems to have been done from 1990-1996 but you should look anyways. Make sure to check any article about nomenclature of the group and look in the references to ensure that it is infact the earliest record. an important note: this path, if won, might be temporary. Since taxonomic levels of things is always up in the air you could find your loop hole vanishing fast. All it would take is some lumper, like me, coming along and saying "they are now BOTH boids and are just different subfamilies". Also remember that they are still in the same SUPERfamily so it's a moot point to begin with. The law there implies ALL boids and their close allies so as to smother that entire branch of the tree in one fell swoop.


- Is there an Internacional Authority that issues such classification thus becoming "binding" to everyone "as from... " is is it just a consensus reached (in time) by the cientific community ?

Yes. ICZN (international comission on zoological nominclature). ICZN Homepage ...if by everyone you mean anyone wanting to publish in a scientific manor, then yes. If by what these guys might listen to, then no.


CODYW: "it looks like a single approach by any one person will just lead to a blanket law covering all snakes, it's one person versus everyone else."

I concur 100%. Leave it alone. If they are anything like Canada, the animals will be illegal but nobody will come check for two reasons: 1. nobody cares and they don't wanna pay for the salary of said person and 2. They need a REASON to search your home so don't call them and say "guess what I have"...leave it alone, let it blow over and be a criminal like me (lol)

Thank you all for your input.

I will look closer at the info sent by Paleontology.

The "funny" thing is that according to present law, the "superdangerous" Ball Pyhtons and Kenyan Sand Boas are banned, but it is legal to keep a "docile" rattlesnake.... (Crotalus)

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Regards,
Joao

well THAT doesn't make any sense!

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Yes my name is D... Yes as in the letter... No i wont tell you what it stands for!!!