herps

Curator Emeritus Bill Duellman saw two books published in the Summer of 2015: Herpetology at Kansas: A Centennial History (published by SSAR) and Marsupial Frogs: Gastrotheca & Allied Genera (published by Johns Hopkins Press). Here, from it's back cover, is a bit more detail on the marsupial frogs book that is now available via Johns Hopkins Press: "This scientific masterpiece reveals many aspects of the lives of marsupial frogs and closely allied genera. Native to central and south America, these amphibians differ from other frogs in that they protect their eggs after oviposition by either adhering them to the female's back or placing them in a specialized dorsal pouch (thus the common name, marsupial frog). During mating, the male typically collects the eggs from the female with his feet - often one at a time and always out of water - fertilizes them, and then tucks them into the female's pouch or attaches them to her back. In some species these eggs hatch as tadpoles, but most emerge as minatures of the adults. Even among the tadpoles there is remarkable convergence, with some behaving in the typical manner (feeding and metamorphosing) and others not feeding until they metamorphose. In Marsupial Frogs, William E. Duellman's synthesis of all that is known about the  unique family Hemiphractidae is largely based on decades of his own careful laboratory and field study. He reveals the diversity of the frog's exotic color patterns and geographic distribution. More than 200 photographs, illustrations, and maps accompany the detailed text. This exceptional reference should find its way into the libraries of serious herpetologists, tropical biologists, and developmental biologists."

Curator Emeritus Bill Duellman's book on the history of herpetology at the University of Kansas is now available. From the back cover "The University of Kansas has long been recognized as having one of the world's leading centers for research and education in herpetology. This book chronicles the people - faculty and student alike - who have contributed to maintaining and expanding KU's herpetology program and details their lives, education, research, and fieldwork. The book also describes how a true institutional program, one that transcends individuals, was created and sustained over such a long period through innovative planning and social development. The KU herpetological collections comprise one of the largest and most comprehensive museums of amphibians and reptiles in existence, now numbering in excess of 332,000 alcohol-preserved specimens, together with ancillary collections of osteological preparations, color images, frozen tissues, audio recordings, and the associated scientific literature. This book provides an insider's in depth review of the many successes as well as plans that went awry or even courted disaster. Altogether this book represents a substantial and critical chapter in the history of the discipline of herpetology."

Still looking for a place to stay for the SSAR 2015 meetings in Lawrence? We still have space in the dormitories at prices ranging from $40-60 per person per night. All dormitory rooms must be reserved at least one week prior to the start of the meeting and will not be available for walk-ups. Because we have already sent out notices for room-mate preferences, we also may not be able to accommodate matches with preferred room-mates for late sign-ups. If you did not sign up for dormitory lodging at the time of registration you can still add a reservation to your registration by contacting the registration professionals available at (785) 864-5823 or toll free (877) 404-5823. Some photographs of the dormitory might give you a better idea of what life there will be like.

The lounge on the first level of the GSP dormitory.	Entraceway to the dormitory rooms at GSP.
Double room in the GSP dormitory. Bedding will be provided to all attendees to sign up for a dormitory bed.	Shared bathroom in the GSP dormitory. Private baths are not available for guests in the dormitories.
Shared bathrooms in the GSP dormitory have private shower stalls.	Breakfast is included in the price of dormitory rooms and will be served in the "North College Cafe" dining area on the ground level of the GSP dormitory.
View from the porch of the GSP dormitory. The tall building in the background is the Oread Hotel, which will host numerous meeting events. The Kansas Union is just beyond the Oread. All meeting venues are a short walk from the dormitory.	View from the porch of the dormitory looking back toward downtown Lawrence. The large buildings in the middle of this frame are in downtown Lawrence.

The Agenda for SSAR 2015 is now available in PDF format. The agenda includes information on scheduling for all of the conference's major events. Detailed schedule for oral talks will be posted shortly.

Congratulations to Scott, who passed his orals yesterday!  In this picture he celebrates with Herpetology Division members at the Bird Dog Cafe.  Next week, Scott departs for a month of field work in the Solomon Islands.  What a life.   The rest of us will stay put, to take care of the many preparations leading up to the SSAR meetings at KU in late July.  Wait a minute....I see what's happening here!

Second year KU Herpetology student Carl Hutter has just been awarded a Rosemary Grant Graduate Student Research Award from the Society for the Study of Evolution. This $2500 award will help further Carl's work on the systematics of Madagascan frogs. Congratulations to Carl!

Led by undergraduate collections assistant Matt Buehler, other undergraduate help remove beetles and their frass from a python skin. A recent inspection of the KU Herpetology dry specimen holdings indicated that several specimens were infested with descructive dermestid beetles. The specimens in danger are being frozen to kill all the beetles and cleaned by hand.

Undergraduate herpetology collections assistants Rooney and Matt with two newly accessioned snakes from the Philippines. On the left is Rooney with a burmese python (the longest non-venemous snake in the world) and on the right is Matt with a king cobra (the longest venemous snake in the world).

Graduate student Scott Travers has just returned from a very successful expedition to the Solomon Islands. New material acquired during his trip includes two of the most spectacular lizards in the world: the prehensile tailed skink (Corucia zebrata) and a giant crocodile skink (Tribolonotus).

^{Rafe, Robin and Matt at iDigBio Summit} 

The Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio; https://www.idigbio.org/) is the national resource for digitization of vouchered natural history collections and was established by the community strategic plan for the Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance (NIBA). iDigBio is supported through funds from the NSF’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program. The vision of the ADBC is a permanent database of digitized information from all biological collections in the United States. It is anticipated that this effort will lead to new discoveries through research, a better understanding and appreciation of biodiversity through improved education and outreach, and subsequent improved environmental and economic policies. Key partners in this effort are the Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs), which form a national grid of institutions that are digitizing specimens and associated resources. Within this context, animal vocalizations (like that of birds and anurans) and electrical signals (such as by fishes), which also form vital specimen-associated resources for research, are currently being digitized and archived by the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://macaulaylibrary.org/) and other institutions around the country. Avian and anuran calls recorded by researchers at KU have been being digitized and contributed to this repository, with a substantial part of the collection already accessible to the public. 

^{Exhibit at the Florida Museum of Natural History}

The 2 day iDigBio IV summit, which was held in Gainsville between October 27–28, 2014 saw Rafe and I, along with Matthew Medler (who represented Mike Webster, Director of the Macaulay Library) as the attending members of the fledgling TCN devoted to digitizing animal vocalizations and electric signals. Eighty-four on-site attendees and nine remote attendees from TCNs, iDigBio, NSF, USGS and other biodiversity informatics initiatives convened for the summit. A series of brief presentations and demonstrations were made by representatives of the various TCNs and Matthew made a presentation of the basic components of our TCN and the progress made so far. One of the more inspired demonstrations was that of John La Salle, who showcased the Atlas of Living Australia portal (http://www.ala.org.au/), which was supported by a $45 million investment by the Australian Government. I guess I would be very inspired too, had I had that kind of money backing me. Another interesting demo was that of augmented reality for public outreach, education and research purposes, where digitized 3D images of specimens can be viewed through a device such as a mobile phone, iPad, or a desktop webcam; the following video illustrates the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STc8Nsx36MI. Following the talks and demos, we then spread out between a set of four breakout discussion groups. The afternoon saw a poster session that was offered in a unique format, where posters were displayed on 55-inch high-definition flat screen televisions instead of the traditional posters printed on paper. The day culminated in a reception at the Florida Museum of Natural History at Powell Hall on the University of Florida campus, where a sensational Megalodon exhibition had just opened to the public. Overall, the Summit offered valuable insight into the ongoing multi-dimensional digitization and archival processes and the efforts to make them openly accessible, along with networking opportunities in this respect.

A few interesting webpages that were highlighted at the Summit:

1. The Society For The Preservation of Natural History Collections: http://www.spnhc.org/
2.  Digital Morphology library: http://www.digimorph.org/
3.  Photosynth, a software application that analyzes digital photographs and generates a three-dimensional model of the photos and a point cloud of a photographed object: https://photosynth.net/preview/