Most of the time when taxonomists discover new species it is a gradual transition from ‘hmm, this looks a little different’ to ‘yes this is certainly new to science’—but not always! Today, my colleagues and I have described a new species of frog from northern Madagascar that was immediately recognised […]
It is around the time of year where blogs tend to publish reviews of their posts of the previous year, and academics think back to their achievements of the past year, so I want to take an opportunity to do both here. My last ‘year in review’ was actually midway […]
This week, we published something a little different than our typical taxonomic output. Roughly three years ago, my friend, fellow PhD student David Prötzel, discovered a fascinating phenomenon in chameleons: shining a UV torch on them made patterns of fluorescence appear on their heads and in some species across their […]
After two months in the forest, fieldwork in Montagne d’Ambre has now drawn to a close. On the 6th of December, we exited the forest in some haste (for reasons that will become apparent below), and over the next few weeks we will be working on getting permits and transportation […]
My team and I have been on Montagne d’Ambre in northern Madagascar since the eleventh of November. At this point we are roughly three fifths through the fieldwork, and two members of the team and I have come out of the field to Antsiranana, the largest city in northern Madagascar, […]
Published today in the open access journal Vertebrate Zoology, Andolalao Rakotoarison and a team of 17 other authors, including yours truly, have described 26 new species of Stumpffia, a genus of small narrow-mouthed frogs endemic to Madagascar! You can access the PDF of this paper here at high resolution (72 MB), […]
Two years ago, I travelled with a team of international and Malagasy researchers to a remote forest in the north of Madagascar, on ‘Expedition Angano.’ The goal of the expedition was to study forest fragmentation and its impact on reptile and amphibian biodiversity and distribution, as well as to identify […]
Appearing today (30th October 2017) in the Open Access journal Salamandra, my colleagues Andolalao Rakotoarison, Miguel Vences, Frank Glaw, and I have a paper published detailing the rediscovery of the enigmatic genus Madecassophryne in the Anosy Mountain chain in southeastern Madagascar; you can get the paper here! In December 2016, we […]
The time has come for a new adventure. Over the last year and a half, I have been preparing for an expedition to the Montagne d’Ambre (English: Amber Mountain) in northern Madagascar. The aim of the project: to conduct the field research that will be central in my PhD research, […]
I am pleased to announce that my colleagues and I have just described a new species of chameleon, Calumma gehringi, from northern Madagascar, published today (13 October 2017) in the Open Access journal Vertebrate Zoology! A PDF of the paper can be downloaded by clicking here. This latest paper is an important […]
Today (6 June 2017), my colleagues and I have published a new paper in the journal Zootaxa, entitled ‘A review of the taxonomy and osteology of the Rhombophryne serratopalpebrosa species group (Anura: Microhylidae) from Madagascar, with comments on the value of volume rendering of micro-CT data to taxonomists.’ This is […]
Finding funding for a PhD project is a serious challenge. If you are flexible and a little lucky, you can maybe find a project that suits you for which funding has already been acquired. But if you are like me and your field of interest is limited, or you have […]
Today (24 February, 2017) Shea M. Lambert, Carl Hutter, and I have published a new species of diamond frog, genus Rhombophryne, in the Open Access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution: meet Rhombophryne nilevina Lambert, Hutter & Scherz, 2017. The story of the discovery of this frog is quite a thrilling one, […]
The Madagascar-endemic genus Gephyromantis Methuen, 1920 contains an ecologically diverse radiation of frogs, from totally terrestrial species found far from water, to species only ever found a couple of metres from it; from large, robust frogs to dainty, fragile ones. Their calls range from loud, rasping croaks, to high pitched […]
A paper by my colleagues and me appears today (7 February 2017) in PeerJ, describing a new species of gecko from northern Madagascar with large scales that come off with extreme ease. This is actually a characteristic of the whole genus Geckolepis, to which the new species belongs, and has […]
