Contributions to the History of Herpetology: Volume 2

Issued to commemorate the Society's 50th Anniversary Meeting, Saint Louis 2007.

This book consists of three sections, each world-wide in coverage. The first and longest section, by Kraig Adler, is a series of completely new biographies of the leading contributors to herpetology beginning with the author of the first book on the subject. Nicolo Leoniceno (1428-1524). The acounts have a portrait, signature, and references for further interest. These feature 285 herpetologists and also include information about their colleagues and students and many other persons. The comprehensive index encompasses voluume 1 and 2 and covers nearly 1,400 individuals.

The second section, by John S. Applegarth, is an index of 3,603 authors in taxonomic herpetology. This alphabetical list includes the full names, dates, countries of residence, and orders of taxa for everyone who has proposed a new taxon (genus or below, within the living families) or has had a taxon named in their honor. This is a unique resource for zoologists, historians, and librarians. In less than two decades (since the 1989 edition), the number of persons covered has increased by nearly 50 percent.

The third section, by Ronald Altig, is a listing of herpetologists giving the names of their doctoral university, their major professor, and the date of their degree. This extensive revision is three times longer than the 1989 ediition. The informatioon is arranged in such a manner that the academic liineages can be followed from generation to generation, both forward and backward in time. 3,810 names are includeed and fully indexed.