# Tessera corns



## lizmel (May 5, 2008)

I've just come across this new morph, has its genetics been proven yet? Where did it come from? And some pics would be great, only seen 1 pic and it doesn't show the whole snake!
Thanks


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## Blackecho (Jun 30, 2008)

I don't think its genetics are proven yet and its a pattern morph.


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## punky_jen (Feb 22, 2007)

South Mountain Reptiles - Tessera

I made a thread about it in the snake section a few weeks ago.


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## toyah (Aug 24, 2006)

It's not proven whether tesseras are dominant or codominant as of yet, that should be found out this breeding season.


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## Skyespirit86 (Feb 23, 2008)

Couple of different sources, much the same info though- because that's all that's known right now I suppose and it just gets copied and pasted. 

Tessera Cornsnakes – The newest mutation and a new mode of inheritance? - CornSnakes.com Forums

Tessera Cornsnakes - The newest cornsnake gene - CornSnakes.com Forums

Tessera Cornsnake - The Source

The newest cornsnake gene: TESSERA - The Source


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## lizmel (May 5, 2008)

Anyone know how this years breeding season went with the Tessera's?


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## pankthesnake (Sep 29, 2007)

lizmel said:


> Anyone know how this years breeding season went with the Tessera's?


Don't know if they found a 'super' form or not, but Don Soderberg has them listed at $1000 for a female and $1200 for a male. His site also says 'in stock now'.


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

Apparently no super form, but is dominant to everything it was put to this year.


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## eeji (Feb 22, 2006)

its looking like its Dominant :2thumb:

I can't wait to see the amel combo!


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## StrangeCargo (Sep 15, 2009)

Hello Everyone- It's Graham from Strange Cargo Exotics (www.scexotics.com). I registered so I could post the Tessera history.

*History:*
 In March of 2007 I purchased a trio of young odd looking “striped” cornsnakes that my friend KJ Lodrigue had seen for sale online. These animals had almost a striped-motley pattern, but still contained a fair amount of black within the striping. When they arrived, the 1.2 trio turned out to be a 2.1 reverse trio.
 Working out-of-town for weeks at a time, I decided to send a majority of my collection to KJ (KJUN Snakehaven) on loan- including the “Striped Okeetee” project. We gave extra male to my friend Don Soderberg (South Mountain Reptiles). In 2008 our female wasn’t large enough to breed, but the male was bred an unrelated okeetee at KJUN Snakehaven. 
 Don, impressed with the unusual amount of black present on the “Striped Okeetee” male, bred it to multiple female okeetees in his collection. We expected “hets” from our breedings. Only a few (4 or 5 if I remember correctly) of KJ’s eggs hatched that year- all were “normal” okeetees. It wasn’t until a phone call from Don that we knew they were something special. Don was ecstatic- his clutches from the breedings contained ~50% normals and ~50% of the strange “Striped Okeetees”. Those results sparked this entire project. We decided to call these odd looking animals “Tessera” Cornsnakes. “Tessellate” means “to form a mosaic pattern” and “tessera” is one of the Latin roots for it.
Knowing that these were either a Co-Dominant or Dominant gene, in 2009 we bred our adult pair together to try and figure out another piece of this exciting puzzle. This small clutch produced mainly Tessera Corns and a few normals. Although there was no obvious “super” form, continued breedings will confirm this. For now we are calling these a Dominant gene.

*What’s makes a Tessera different from other striped/striped motley corns?*

KJ Lodrigue posted the following well written answer on an online forum:
_“1. The black lines were obvious. These are never present on striped corns and are so rare on motleys that they can almost be ignored. The new snakes are more of a “lined” corn than a striped corn!
2. Lateral patterns were heavily checkered in a mosaic-like pattern. The best way to describe the lateral pattern is that is strongly resembles digital camouflage patterns. Normal stripes and motleys have the dorsal pattern absent or modified into a partial, thin, stripe. 
3. Ventral scales were usually edged in black (similar to many “het bloodred” cornsnakes but darker and more obvious) and many had partial checkers over much of the ventral surface
4. Overall coloration was that of a NORMAL cornsnake. Striped and motley cornsnakes have a hypo-like appearance. These do NOT. They retain the beautiful coloration of a normal cornsnake while having a striped-motley like pattern with intricate sides.
5. The dorsal stripe was almost always complete from head to tail, and it does not yet seem to turn into a true motley or striped pattern when outcrossed. In most cases, the “stripes” above the spine are, at most, broken in only 1 or 2 small places.”_

*Future:*
 We consider ourselves very privileged to be working with this exciting new gene. This is the FIRST dominant gene to ever be discovered in cornsnakes. The future combinations are endless. Hopefully this will ignite new interest in the colubrid hobby!

I didn't see an easy way (other than uploading pictures to photobucket and then here) to post pics...sorry. I just updated my website though and put a bunch of new Tessera pictures on it! Strange Cargo Exotics www.scexotics.com 

Thanks so much!
Graham


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## StrangeCargo (Sep 15, 2009)

eeji said:


> I can't wait to see the amel combo!


Me either. Believe me, I'm working on it. We of course have amels, anerys, hypos, snows and ghosts in the works PLUS a bunch of other genes I can't mention yet. 

This year we're going to work on getting the Lava and Cinder genes mixed in! We were hoping for lava hets this year but my big female slugged out.

Graham


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## eeji (Feb 22, 2006)

good luck mate, you already know what I think of your tesseras! oo:

bad news about the lava combo, theres always next year


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## StrangeCargo (Sep 15, 2009)

eeji said:


> bad news about the lava combo, theres always next year


We're on it! Thanks so much for the kind words.


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