
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.

Lizards and snakes living in sandy soils in dry habitats and tolerating high temperatures have been considered beneficiaries of global warming as suitable habitats expand due to climate change. However, a study by Brazilian…

The species seemed to have bug eyes and a smile, so a team of researchers named it Kermitops gratus in honor of the banjo-playing Muppet. Michael Levenson, NYT One crawled across the rain-drenched ground…

About 128 million years ago, a surge of adaptation caused snakes to explode in diversity and evolve up to three times faster than lizards. Since they initially descended from lizards, snakes were minor ecological…

The following is based on Wilcox C. 2024. Powerful new antivenom raises hopes for a universal solution to lethal snakebites. Science News 21 Feb 2024. A significant step toward developing an antivenom that could…

A new species of endemic snake from the Lost World The Pantepui is a remote, biodiverse region of ~400 000 km2 in northern South America it contains at least five endemic reptile genera and several…

The Asian elapid genus Bungarus are commonly called kraits. They are terrestrial in forests and some agricultural habitats. They feed on other snakes but will take other small vertebrates. Their bodies are dorsolaterally compressed,…

Al-Sheikhlyet al. (2023) discuss reports of Iraq’s Reticulated Python, Malayopython reticulatus. The following is edited content from the Jordan Journal of Natural History article. Unverified reports of a “giant snake” surfaced in Iraq in…

Geckos and skinks are lizard lineages that have been remarkably successful, as measured by the number of species recognized as well as , the size of their geographic range, the variety of habitats, ecological…

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — A lizard species historically known to thrive across the Edwards Plateau in Central and West Texas is no longer listed under the Endangered Species Act since a…