
Amphibians, Reptiles, & Natural History

Naturalist, Photographer , Zoologist
After retiring from a career teaching biology and anatomy & physiology and science administration, I study reptiles and amphibians (but focus mostly on squamates). My current interest are in snake phylogeny and diversity, highly aquatic snakes (that are non-sea snakes), the herpetofauna of Trinidad and Tobago, and giant snakes. I have been on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Herpetological Society, the Board of Directors of the Tucson Herpetological Society; a research associate at the Field Museum in Chicago. I have been a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Snake Specialists Group International Society for the History and Bibliography of Herpetology (ISHBH); and on the board of directors of Friends of Madera Canyon.

In 2024, 33 species of new snakes were described. In previous years, 51 snakes were described in 2023, 48 in 2022, 66 in 2021, and 68 in 2020. Here is a summary for 2024.…

Many small invertebrates utilize bubbles to facilitate underwater respiration, but until recently, there was no evidence that vertebrate animals do the same. Only one group of vertebrates, semi-aquatic Anolis lizards, has evolved the ability to use…

The following is based on: Tomma G. 2024. Giant Australian lizards may help protect sheep from deadly fly-borne diseases. Science July 11. Some blowflies have an unnerving reproduction method, akin to extraterrestrial parasites from…

The snake family Madtsoiidae is an extinct clade of primarily Gondwanan terrestrial snakes, with a temporal range spanning approximately 100 million years from the Late Cretaceous to the Late Pleistocene. Their geographic range during…

Marine wildlife ingests plastic pollution, making them a reservoir for plastic debris and an important part of “where is all the plastic?”. To date, estimates of how much plastic pollution resides within marine animals…

The following article was published on VOX on 21 May. Click on this link to see the entire story and images. The author is Benji Jones. Night had fallen in Cabo Rojo, a wildlife…

The following article is based on Smith (2023) and Sanchez (2024). Links to the complete articles are in the references section. Xochimilco is a sizable, semirural neighborhood located south of Mexico City. Chinampas, or…

The Green Anaconda, Eunectes murinus, has long been Amazonia’s most iconic animal. It is widely regarded as the largest snake in existence. However, in a groundbreaking development, Rivas et al. published a paper in February…

This book is available as a high quality PDF on the Herpetological Conservation International website. Aquatic Snakes, Diversity and Natural History covers about 420 snake species with text written by over a dozen co-authors…