Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Two Pelobatid Frogs from the Tertiary of North America and Their Relationships to Fossil and Recent Forms. American Museum Novitates
Author: Two Pelobatid Frogs from the Tertiary of North America and Their Relationships to Fossil and Recent Forms
Author: Richard George ZweifelPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Eopelobates grandis
Languages : en
Pages : 45
Book Description
Fossil Frogs and Toads of North America
Author: J. Alan HolmanPublisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253000569
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302
Book Description
The heart of this book consists of detailed systematic accounts of the known fossil frogs and toads (anurans) of North America and their localities. Extinct fossil frogs and toads are fully discussed and illustrated, and in some cases are re-diagnosed and re-described. For fossil taxa still living, the book gives the modern characteristics, ecological attributes, and modern ranges, and includes illustrations of diagnostic skeletal elements. The volume begins with an overview of the anurans and anuran studies, a general account of the skeleton and bones, and a discussion of the early evolution of the Anura, along with the formal classification of anuran taxonomic groups found in the North American fossil record. The third part of the book presents an epoch-by-epoch discussion of Mesozoic, Tertiary, and Pleistocene anurans, the classification and phylogeny of the anurans, and a comprehensive list of references.
Frogs of the United States and Canada
Author: C. Kenneth Dodd Jr.Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421444917
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 991
Book Description
"The premiere reference book on the 108 species of frogs inhabiting North America north of Mexico. An unparalleled synthesis of the biology and behavior of all native and nonindigenous species, this two-volume, extensively referenced resource has been called the most important book ever published on North American anura. Color photographs and range maps accompany species accounts detailing information on etymology, nomenclature, identification, distribution, fossil record, systematics and geographic variation, life history and ecology, behavior, population and community biology, and conservation. This new edition of the text contains the following updates: Literature citations have been added from 2012 to 2021, now spanning from 1709 to 2021. Distribution maps have been updated, recording the decreased ranges due to declining amphibian populations. Photographs have been revised to ensure the highest digital quality. Anaxyrus williamsi and Lithobates kauffeldi, newly described species, have been included. An account is also included for Gastrophryne mazatlanensis, now recognized as occurring within the United States. Generic keys have been added. A brief section on N.A. frogs in history and art have been added. Nomenclature has been updated (Incilius for Ollotis). Now the only up-to-date and comprehensive resource for those trying to protect amphibians in the US and Canada, as well as for researchers and wildlife managers who study biodiversity"--
Fossil Vertebrates in the American Museum of Natural History
Author: American Museum of Natural History. Dept. of Vertebrate PalaeontologyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Vertebrates, Fossil
Languages : en
Pages : 742
Book Description
Gnomes of the Night
Author: Arthur N. BraggPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512800686
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
This book is the most complete account in existence of a strange group of animals—the spadefoot toads. This small group of species, which, because of their secretive and burrowing habits, the author calls "gnomes of the night," have unusually numerous interesting facts in their life history. The purpose of the book is twofold: to give a factual picture of the lives of the spadefoots, drawing upon the technical literature as well as the author's wide experience with certain species; and to illustrate how a naturalist works, the mistakes he sometimes makes, his correction of them with time and further experience, and the necessity for him to accept and examine critically the comments on his work by others. Gnomes of the Night should appeal to all zoologists, especially those whose interests are in the lives of animals in their natural habitat rather than in the laboratory. Illustrated with maps and photographs, it is a scholarly and fascinating account of little-known but prevalent animals.
Biodiversity Response to Climate Change in the Middle Pleistocene
Author: Anthony D. BarnoskyPublisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520240820
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 408
Book Description
Annotation Fossil finds from 10 years of research show the effects of climate change on North American mammals during the Pleistocene era, about one million to 400,000 years ago.
The White River Badlands
Author: Rachel C. BentonPublisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253016088
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
This guide to the South Dakota region that houses the world’s richest fossil beds does “an excellent job of presenting the current state of knowledge” (Choice). The forbidding Big Badlands in Western South Dakota contain the richest fossil beds in the world. Even today these rocks continue to yield new specimens brought to light by snowmelt and rain washing away soft rock deposited on a floodplain long ago. The quality and quantity of the fossils are superb: most of the species to be found there are known from hundreds of specimens. The fossils in the White River Group (and similar deposits in the American west) preserve the entire late Eocene through the middle Oligocene, roughly 35-30 million years ago and more than thirty million years after non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. The fossils provide a detailed record of a period of abrupt global cooling and what happened to creatures who lived through it. This book is a comprehensive reference to the sediments and fossils of the Big Badlands, and also touches on National Park Service management policies that help protect such significant fossils. Includes photos and illustrations “A worthy successor to the work of O’Harra.” —Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
A History of Herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History
Author: Charles W. MyersPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Amphibians
Languages : en
Pages : 238
Book Description
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.
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