For many years, the green tree python was classified as the 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"). 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.