A lot of gold for a chacoan!?

[Justsomedude]

Hey guys I got this guy from snakes at sunset about a month ago. I love em to death and just wanted some opinions as to what everyone thought about his coloring. I am seeing a lot of greys on his head as well as a lot of yellowish gold on his back and tail! Could this be a Colombian mix? I know he was imported from South America so I can't exactly contact a breeder so I'll post some pics and see what you guys think. Either way he's my little dude and he's not going anywhere!

 

[Justsomedude]

 

[Walter1]

Scalation between nose and eye indicates an Argie. Interesting color.

 

[Roadkill]

Loreal scalation is actually a rather poor determinate between Salvator and Tupinambis. Yes, I know, the paper that made the call to separate the genus made this the key focal point....and they are wrong. Salvator typically have two loreal scales, and Tupinambis typically have one scale, but this is not always the case. Exceptions are not uncommon, I even have a lineage of Salvator merianae that all have one loreal scale.

Justsomedude, you are making a great example of exactly the point I've made numerous times, and somewhat recently in another thread. People see a slight difference and then jump to hybridization. The eagerness to jump to this conclusion is mind boggling considering the vast amount of variation that is seen in tegu species. That in the photos above is quite typical colouration for Tupinambis merianae. There's no reason to suspect any kind of hybridization has taken place here.

 

[Walter1]

Roadkill- Is there no Santa Claus either? Yup, good point. Loreal a not perfect. Importers once again ahead of taxonomists. No idea the extent to which what we see coming in is within-population differences or between-population differences. Once crossed in captivity or southern Florida, all bets are off.

Teguixin seems to have smoother scales. Do find that trait to hold?

 

[Justsomedude]

Thanks guys I appreciate the response