Download or read book The Summit Herpetofauna of Auyantepui Venezuela written by Charles W. Myers and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Auyantepui is an immense sandstone table mountain in the Venezuelan Guayana. This mesa did not appear on aviation maps and was unknown to the literate world prior to the late 1930s. It was explored from the air by Jimmy Angel, a bush pilot and colorful soldier of fortune for whom the world's highest waterfall is named (Angel Falls at the northern end of Auyantepui). About the same time, in 1937, Captain Félix Cardona Puig and Gustavo Heny discovered an access crack in the sandstone, allowing ascent onto the southern end of the mesa. The first scientific exploration followed immediately--the 1937-1938 Phelps Venezuelan Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History made the first zoological and general botanical collections. Today, no tepui other than the "Lost World" of Cerro Roraima is better known to the general public. The summit of Auyantepui has a known fauna of 24 species of amphibians and reptiles, including species added by the Robert G. Goelet American Museum-TERRAMAR Expedition in 1994. This expedition collected 16 species during a month of fieldwork in the dry season (February), in five camps at elevations of 1700-2100 m above sea level. All species known from the summit of Auyantepui are treated in this bulletin; illustrations where possible include tadpoles, bioacoustic spectrograms, and hemipenes. Four new species are described--two frogs (Hypsiboas angelicus, n. sp., Eleutherodactylus auricarens, n. sp.), a lizard (Arthrosaura montigena, n. sp.), and a snake (Atractus guerreroi, n. sp.). Arthrosaura montigena possesses a hemipenial character not previously described--an orifice (orificium) of unknown function, situated in the lobular crotch between the two lobes. Attention is called to a probably undescribed snake (Liophis "miliaris" sensu lato) from the nearby Gran Sabana. The herpetofauna of the Auyán summit comprises 12 families, 20 genera, and 24 species. This is compared with the known herpetofauna of the Chimantá massif, lying less than 50 km south-southeast of Auyantepui. Despite the proximity and similar dimensions, the summits of Auyantepui and Chimantá have in common only 11% of the combined number of species (4 of 36), 44% of the genera (11 of 25), and 62% of the families represented (8 of 13), showing that neighboring tepuis may have herpetofaunas very different from one another. Nonetheless, the adjacent mountains that constitute the more fragmented Chimantá massif are relatively close to one another and seem to have a unified herpetofauna.

Download or read book Islands and Snakes written by Harvey Lillywhite and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islands and Snakes contains 13 chapters describing ecological systems with foci on snakes and their ecological roles on islands around the world. Each chapter is written by one or more authors who is an authority on that particular system. Summaries of research on the various islands are written in a narrative manner that includes science as well as personal insights in easily understood language. These varied vignettes of science feature islands around the world, and in all cases, fantastic species of snakes and their roles in the community of insular organisms in which they occur. Both challenges and opportunities associated with island life are discussed, as well as the unique attributes of snakes and their conservation as unique and important parts of nature. Chapters include colorful photographs and illustrations, and collectively they convey information on topics that include ecology, behavior, biogeography, physiology, adaptation, and evolutionary biology. An introductory chapter presents a review and perspective on the historical importance of island ecology and how snakes have contributed to our understanding of evolution and adaptation. The other chapters focus on snakes inhabiting islands associated with Asia, Australia, South America, North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The final chapter features the unique "table top islands" or tepuis of South America as examples of ecological islands where elements of biota have become isolated by geographic features of landscape similarly to oceanic islands.

Download or read book Snakes of the World written by Van Wallach and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 1237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species-the first catalogue of its kind-covers all living and fossil snakes described between 1758 and 2012, comprising 3,509 living and 274 extinct species allocated to 539 living and 112 extinct genera. Also included are 54 genera and 302 species that are dubious or invalid, resulting in reco

Download or read book Biodiversity of Pantepui written by Valentí Rull and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2019-06-12 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biodiversity of Pantepui: The Pristine "Lost World" of the Neotropical Guiana Highlands provides the most updated and comprehensive knowledge on the biota, origin, and evolution of the Pantepui biogeographical province. It synthesizes historical information and recent discoveries, covering the main biogeographic patterns, evolutionary trends, and conservational efforts. Written by international experts on the biodiversity of this pristine land, this book explores what makes Pantepui a unique natural laboratory to study the origin and evolution of Neotropical biodiversity under the influence of only natural drivers. It discusses the organisms living in Pentepui, including algae, plants, several groups of invertebrates, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. The latter portion of the book delves into the effects of human activity and global warming on Pantepui, and current conservational efforts to combat these threats. Biodiversity of Pantepui is an important resource for researchers in ecology, biogeography, evolution, and conservation, who want to understand the biodiversity and natural history of this region, and how to help conserve and protect the Guiana Highlands from environmental and human damages. - Offers a climactic and ecological history of the region since the Late Glacial epoch - Discusses the evolutionary origin of the Pantepui biota and its biogeographical patterns - Led by a team of editors whose expertise includes Pantepui, the Guiana Shield, and the Neotropics in general

Download or read book The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes written by David J. Gower and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-11 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latest developments in understanding how, when and where the extraordinary body plan and ecology of snakes evolved from lizard ancestors.

Download or read book Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History written by Joel Asaph Allen and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprises articles on geology, paleontology, mammalogy, ornithology, entomology and anthropology.

Download or read book Pap is Avulsos de Zoologia written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A History of Herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History written by Charles W. Myers and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Those who use and care for collections are subtly hindered if they lack understanding of the history of their collections. The present work provides a frame of reference for the American Museum's accumulations of Recent amphibians and reptiles for the department established to curate and use them. The herpetological holdings began in 1869 with purchase of the collection of Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied, and additional specimens began accumulating from other sources. But the signature and scope of the collection were most importantly determined by the explosion of expeditionary fever at the American Museum in early 20th century and by establishment of a department with curators charged with organizing and studying the incoming collections. A Department of Ichthyology and Herpetology was formalized in 1909 and later split in 1920. The original department had three ichthyologists and one herpetologist--Mary Cynthia Dickerson, who also served as editor of the American Museum Journal (= Natural History as of 1919) and as Curator of the old Department of Woods and Forestry. Despite an incredible workload, Dickerson threw herself into both herpetological exhibition work and collection building--two parts of a calculated tripartite effort at establishing a major herpetology department that could stand on its own with the older departments of the Museum. The third part of Dickerson's evolving program was a conscientious attempt at building a library and center for herpetological research. Frustrated in finding time for her own investigations, she deliberately sought young scholars who could independently conduct both field-work and collection-based research. She sent Emmett Reid Dunn on his first collecting trip and, by 1916-1917, Dickerson had attracted to her cause assistants Karl Patterson Schmidt, Gladwyn Kingsley Noble, and Charles Lewis Camp. In a few years, with interruption for military service, Dickerson's "triumvirate" was accomplishing work that would establish the department as the major research center that she had envisioned. Concurrent with her editorship of Natural History and her curatorship of Woods and Forestry, Dickerson established a robust program of herpetological exhibition and research in only a decade. Herpetology--her Department--was officially separated from Ichthyology in February 1920. But Dickerson had been losing a perilous grip on her sanity and, on Christmas Eve of that year, was committed to an asylum, where she died three years later at age 57. Assistant Curator G.K. Noble, age 27, was given formal charge of the Department beginning in 1921. Although K.P. Schmidt had resigned earlier, Noble arranged for Schmidt's return to help in a difficult transition, during which Noble completed his Ph.D. dissertation and Schmidt brought Dickerson's research to conclusion. Schmidt gave his final resignation in 1922, in order to take charge of the new Division of Reptiles and Amphibians at the Field Museum of Natural History. Noble inherited Dickerson's departmental philosophy and continued her emphasis on exhibition and on building the collection and bibliographic files, although his own research expanded dramatically. Noble never abandoned interest in fieldwork, anatomy, and collection-based systematics, but he combined those pursuits with increasing attention to laboratory-based, experimental investigations using techniques of endocrinology and neurology. In 1928, he received offers for positons at Cornell University and at Columbia University, the latter to replace geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan (who was later awarded a Nobel Prize for his work at Columbia). With support from President Henry Fairfield Osborn and trustee Douglas Burden, Noble's request for new facilities was approved and he stayed at the Museum. The Department was renamed the Department of Herpetology and Experimental Biology in 1928, with Experimental Biology being split off as a separate department in 1933. Although Herpetology came to suffer as a result, Noble remained Curator of both departments until his death in December 1940 at age 47. Noble's "abrasive personality" has given rise to legends that do not stand up under examination, in particular the published claims that he was responsible for firing Assistant Curator Clifford H. Pope in 1935--the year of publication of Pope's Reptiles of China. Over Noble's protest, Pope was dismissed by Director Roy Chapman Andrews, who had become antipathetic to Noble's operation (ostensibly for budgetary reasons) after Osborn's departure as President. Charles M. Bogart, hired in 1936, became "Assistant Curator (In Charge)" of the Department of Herpetology after Noble's unexpected death in 1940. A new Director, Albert Parr, introduced the departmental title "Chairman" in 1942. Parr at that time also dissolved the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology and appointed Edwin H. Colbert as Chair of a new Department of Amphibians and Reptiles that included dinosaurs as well as pickled newts, despite George Gaylord Simpson's protest that "paleoherpetology and paleomammalogy have much more in common than either one has with its corresponding neozoological specialty." This was only one of several departmental reorganizations to which Herpetology and other departments have been subjected by administrative fiat, usually with noticeable loss of efficiency. Another reorganization followed shortly, with Bogert installed as Chairman. James A. Oliver was hired as Assistant Curator in 1942, but, after interruption for military service, he resigned in 1948 owing to deteriorating Museum finances. With Bogert's encouragement, Oliver later returned to New York as Curator of Reptiles at the New York Zoological Society; he subsequently served as Director of the American Museum from 1959 to 1969. In replacing Parr as Director, Oliver brought a renewed commitment to systematics in the Museum. Bogert's career (see Myers and Zweifel, 1993) needs to be understood in the larger context of the history of the Department, which owes much to his dedication and stabilizing influence at a time when Parr was de-emphasizing collections. Except for a few war-interrupted years with Assistant Curator Oliver, Bogert was the only Curator in Herpetology from 1940 to 1954. He held the collection as a reasonably well-curated unit during a long period of economic stress and severe understaffing. Richard G. Zweifel was hired as Assistant Curator in 1954. His term of chairmanship (1968-1980) is taken as the beginning of a "modern" age in the Department, which has continued to expand its collections and improve on the quality of their care. The evolution of curatorial procedure and specimen cataloguing is discussed; the catalogue data were transferred to an electronic database during 1992-1995. One reason for establishing a new department in 1909 had to do with the Museum's expanding exhibition program. Dickerson and Noble considered exhibition work to be of equal importance to research. Dickerson developed the concept of herpetological "habitat groups" (dioramas) by skillfully employing a variety of preparation techniques-especially wax casting-to create lifelike models engaged in vital activities within complex settings. In 1927, Noble opened a "Hall of Reptile and Amphibian Life" that incorporated Dickerson's habitat groups and many other newer, less elaborate groups and mounts; he developed the technique of paraffin infiltration to use the animals themselves as exhibited models. Noble's hall celebrated diversity and focused on isolated biological themes. Bogert and Zweifel built on this rich history by conceiving a more integrated exhibit that would stress the biology of amphibians and reptiles in parallel displays, a concept that eventually resulted in the 1977 "Hall of the Biology of Reptiles and Amphibians." Newer casts could be done in plastic, the best of which, if well painted, equaled in beauty the best of the old wax models. The herpetological exhibits and most curatorial research were made possible by Museum collecting activities. Insight is provided on early departmental fieldwork--a time when night collecting was a "new" technique made feasible by the introduction of acetylene (carbide) and electric lamps. Also discussed are some of the Museum's multidisciplinary expeditions, several of which continued for years. The Museum's great expeditionary period lasted at the outside from 1910 to 1940. Despite the Great Depression, the number of expeditions peaked not in the 1920's (about 114 starts) but in the 1930s (141 starts), owing to increasing numbers of independently financed expeditions conducted under Museum auspices. Any revival of the Era of Great Expeditions after World War II was precluded by a complex of factors, including changing administrative and economic environments in the Museum, as well as the coming age of the airplane and automotive transport. Logistically complicated expeditions were largely replaced by field trips that could more readily be initiated by the curators. The few expeditions still being organized are nostalgic reminders of another time, when collections now irreplaceable were being gathered from around the globe.

Download or read book Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Report written by American Museum of Natural History and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Checklist of the Terrestrial Vertebrates of the Guiana Shield written by Tom Hollowell and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Report of the American Museum of Natural History written by American Museum of Natural History and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Report of the Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History for the Year written by American Museum of Natural History and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes list of members.

Download or read book Freshwater Fish Distribution written by Tim M. Berra and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 645 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With more than 29,000 species, fishes are the most diverse group of vertebrates on the planet. Of that number, more than 12,000 species are found in freshwater ecosystems, which occupy less than 1 percent of the Earth’s surface and contain only 2.4 percent of plant and animal species. But, on a hectare-for-hectare basis, freshwater ecosystems are richer in species than more extensive terrestrial and marine habitats. Examination of the distribution patterns of fishes in these fresh waters reveals much about continental movements and climate changes and has long been critical to biogeographical studies and research in ecology and evolution. Tim Berra’s seminal resource, Freshwater Fish Distribution,maps the 169 fish families that swim in fresh water around the world. Each family account includes the class, subclass, and order; a pronunciation guide to the family name; life cycle information; and interesting natural history facts. Each account is illustrated, many with historical nineteenth-century woodcuts. Now available in paperback, this heavily cited work in ichthyology and biogeography will serve as a reference for students, a research support for professors, and a helpful guide to tropical fish hobbyists and anglers.

Download or read book Annual Report American Museum of Natural History written by American Museum of Natural History and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes list of members.

Download or read book Neotropical Diversification Patterns and Processes written by Valentí Rull and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-30 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive overview of the patterns of biodiversity in various neotropical ecosystems, as well as a discussion on their historical biogeographies and underlying diversification processes. All chapters were written by prominent researchers in the fields of tropical biology, molecular ecology, climatology, paleoecology, and geography, producing an outstanding collection of essays, synthetic analyses, and novel investigations that describe and improve our understanding of the biodiversity of this unique region. With chapters on the Amazon and Caribbean forests, the Atlantic rainforests, the Andes, the Cerrado savannahs, the Caatinga drylands, the Chaco, and Mesoamerica – along with broad taxonomic coverage – this book summarizes a wide range of hypotheses, views, and methods concerning the processes and mechanisms of neotropical diversification. The range of perspectives presented makes the book a truly comprehensive, state-of-the-art publication on the topic, which will fascinate both scientists and general readers alike.