rip Lizzy the lizard 🕊️

Hi all! I spent a summer in Sao Paulo in 2014 and was lucky enough to get a tour of the Instituto Butantan (health research center that has a huge venomous snake collection for anti venom/medicine development) At this point in my life I didn't realize how lucky I was to see all these guys in one place, and I may never be exposed to something like this again. Tonight I was going through photos and thought I would share.

Pics of the snakes. Can yall identify any of them? I'm especially curious about the one I'm holding in the last few pics.

Hi!

I'm doing a project for my Master Herpatologist class on my local cricket frogs, Acris crepitans. Here is my problem: Acris crepitans applies to both the Eastern cricket frogs and the Northern cricket frog. I've seen sources that indicate they are different, with different, overlapping ranges, and some differences in morphology. However I've also seen sources that suggests they are the same. As they both have the same scientific nomenclature it's making it really hard for me to be sure I'm finding info on the same frog, assuming they are, in fact, different. My research is a jumble right now because of this. Isnt that why we have the scientific nomenclature to begin with, so we can remove ambiguity? I'm feeling betrayed, lol. Anyway, I can't seem find a definitive answer. Any help with sorting this out would be so appreciated.

Thanks!!

gday everyone! i’ve just gotten myself a camera to start photographing all the snakes i see, i’m not too switched on with cameras. my question is can anyone help me figure out settings for my camera? what’s good, what does it do, all that kind of stuff!

above is my photo, eastern tiger snake (notechis scatatus)

I'm a sophomore in high school, and my parents and teachers are encouraging me to start exploring colleges. I’m set on becoming a wildlife zoologist, specializing in herpetology. What colleges would you suggest for this?

Has anyone read The Rise of Reptiles:320 Years of Evolution by Hans-Dieter Sues? I was reading a separate book about the evolution of synapsids and it recommended this book. I'm interested but $80 is a little steep a price to pay going off the word of one author. Can anyone tell me if they think it's worth a read?

I saw this little fella while walking my dog today. He was absolutely tiny, probably about 10” long.

My best guess is maybe a juvenile Dekay brownsnake?

Title. It's usually with Australian snakes. I'll look at a snake and think, "that definitely looks like a colubrid" and nope. It's a brown snake. Same with oriental rat snakes and the colubrids over there.

Found this friend next to my house on a walk today. The sun had melted some snow away and there it was! Tagged NSFW in case this isn't brumation and it's, in fact, dead.

Not the best picture but very cool to see.

So I was just reading an article about an anomalous overgrown tadpole, It made me think back to when I was around 11 years old. We used to hop a fence into this strange tiny pond in rural NH and swim there almost daily. The pond was absolutely full of overgrown tadpoles to the point where there were none of normal size. It didn't seem anomalous then. But now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering what causes the hormonal imbalance in tadpoles that causes them to not develop correctly? We swam in that water daily lol for many summers.