#SciFri: Venomous caecilians
You may have seen this article (or one like it) at the beginning of the month, which caused a stir among the amphibian research community. As a group caecilians are severely understudied due to their fossorial nature which makes surveying…
#SteveReviews: Into The Forest
First off, apologies for the patchy frequency of blog posts recently. I have only just returned to the field and I had a mad period of getting ready to get back out and chase snakes. I’ll tell you more about…
#SciFri: Colour polymorphisms in amphibians and reptiles
Field guides are a great way to identify wildlife whether it be in the field or from photographs. I have a large number of them that make up the core of my reference library for countries I’ve visited or I’m…
#SciFri: Where should I report any herpetofauna I’ve seen?
Picture this, you’ve been out and about in the woods walking your dog and whilst bending down to pick up the stick your furry friend has become fond of, you spot a frog. What do you do with this casual…
#SciFri: Revenge of the venomous frogs
Something I’ve noticed making the rounds on social media again is the story of venomous frogs, first discovered back in 2015. Yeah you read that right, at a time before the world had started to fall apart/was on fire all…
#SciFri: Special issue on emerging diseases and infections in herpetofauna
As many of you will be aware, we are experiencing unprecedented declines in biodiversity globally in an event that biologists have named the sixth mass extinction. The two biggest obstacles facing the natural world are habitat loss and anthropogenic environment…
#SciFri: The science of stowaways
Those of you that know me, will know that I have a voracious appetite for reading and also answering questions. Something I’ve been interested in for a while (since later 2015) is the the frequency and origin of stowaway reptiles…
#SciFri: Herpetofauna Workers Meeting 2020
Back in early February, I attended the a conference on the 15th and 16th February in Southport up on the Sefton coast. Despite the fact that Storm Dennis was blowing and coronavirus was yet to cause the disruption is has…
#SciFri: We described a new species!
Back in October 2015, I was sitting in the Cambridge Blue (on Gwydir Street, Cambridge) when I got a phone call from John W. Wilkinson of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust (ARC). He had rang to tell me about…
#SciFri: The last herpetological conferences of the decade!
Those of you that follow me on Twitter or Instagram will know that recently I attended two conferences here in the UK. The first was the Joint Scientific Meeting held in Bournemouth and the second was Venom Day, held in…