House of Herps

It is my great honor to introduce the third edition of House of Herps, the blog carnival dedicated to amphibians and reptiles.  This is an exciting time for herpetology, as scientists wrangle over how best to categorize this fascinating group of animals. According to The Center for North American Herpetology (CNAH),

The discovery that birds (Class Aves) are the closest modern relative to the crocodilians, or the sister clade to crocodilians and turtles, renders the Class Reptilia as an unnatural grouping.¹

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) refers to herps in the traditional groupings of Amphibians and Reptiles. The IUCN offers their taxonomic standards and sourcing as follows:²

Reptiles

Turtles and tortoises generally follow Iverson (1992) (see http://emys.geo.orst.edu/); crocodilians follow King and Burke (1989) (see http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/turtcroclist/); and tuatara systematics are after Daugherty et al. (1990). Names in common use, including those used by Specialist Groups or in national sources, have been employed for other groups of reptiles. Increasing use is being made of the TIGR Reptile Database compiled by Peter Uetz and made available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.reptile-database.org/.

Amphibians

Nomenclature generally follows Frost (1985) as updated by Duellman (1993). The Amphibian Species of the World Database is now available on the World Wide Web and is updated regularly, so this has become the source for any recent changes: http://research.amnh.org/cgi-bin/herpetology/amphibia. Another important web site for documentation on amphibian species, especially those in decline is the Amphibia Web Database. The Fact Sheets for all amphibian species on the Red List include deep links to the relevant species pages on both the sites described above.

However we describe this diverse group of creatures, one thing is sure: there can be no more eloquent a spokesman for amphibians and reptiles,  than our own Jason Hogle. Those of you who have followed other blog carnivals, have no doubt become familiar with Jason’s name and singular style. Fans of his blog dine regularly on the feast of words that is xenogere.com. Please join me at xenogere.com for House of Herps #3, to relish Jason’s presentation of the best herp-blogging on the internet.

Call for Hosts!

The winter months (in North America) are challenging months for herpetophiles, but Spring is on the way. The next edition of HoH, #4, will be published mid-March – and we need a host! As the weather warms, I anticipate an influx of bloggers wanting to take their turn at the wheel, so don’t wait!  Please contact us at [hosting@houseofherps.com], or use the contact form on our Contact page if you would like to host an upcoming edition.

The next ectothermic extravaganza, House of Herps #3, is fast approaching. Though it may still be winter for those of us north of the equator, this is no time to hibernate. There are frogs to be kissed and snakes to be charmed even in the coldest of months.

I’ll be hosting this edition at my blog, xenogere. You can submit your entries in three ways: send an e-mail to submissions [AT] houseofherps [DOT] com, send an e-mail to jason [AT] xenogere [DOT] com, or use the neat little contact form on my site. Your message will land in my lap no matter which method you choose.

The deadline for this edition is February 15. The carnival will be posted on February 18.

Remember, House of Herps is a celebration of amphibians and reptiles, from conservation to science and research to education to discovery. If you’ve blogged about herps in that context, we want to hear from you. So get hoppin’ and get your submissions in no later than February 15.

Also, we’re looking for volunteers to host the carnival in the coming months. If you’re interested, please send an e-mail to submissions [AT] houseofherps [DOT] com and let us know! Please include a link to your blog and which month you’d like to host. (The hosting schedule is visible in the sidebar to the right.)

While researching a large black predatory fly in 2009, I stumbled upon a blog called Beetles in the Bush. With such a blog name, who was this expert capable of telling me about killer flies? Beetles were his game from what I could tell.

Yet I was to be subsequently wowed and awed by a man who specialized in entomology but who also demonstrated a profound expertise with nature as a whole, someone passionate about learning and passionate about sharing what he knew.

And he’s passionate about the nature blogging community, too.

Ted MacRae first dipped into carnival hosting with an auspicious rendition of Berry Go Round. Plants? From a beetle guy? Yep. And it was a great edition indeed.

Now he’s venturing further from his beloved beetles with an exceptional presentation of House of Herps. This is one really smart festival that shouldn’t be missed. Please head on over to House of Herps #2 for a veritable feast of eye candy and information. And don’t forget to tip the waiter.

The deadline for submitting to the second edition of House of Herps is fast approaching. You should have your entries to Ted MacRae of Beetles in the Bush no later than January 15 if you want to be included. He’ll kick off the festivities a few days later.

Please either send your entries to submissions [AT] houseofherps [DOT] com or send them directly to Ted using his handy-dandy contact form.

I have friends who want to participate. Here’s one of them, a male green anole (Anolis carolinensis) who’s been grabbing as much sun as he can before bitter temperatures set in later this week.

He’s hoping you have some friends who also want to join in. Send along your entries before the 15th, and we’ll plan to see you at Ted’s place for the next cold-blooded convention!

Welcome to the first edition of House of Herps, the new monthly blog carnival dedicated to celebrating amphibian and reptilian wildlife and conservation.

We are truly humbled and honored to have received such a great response from our fellow nature bloggers. If I have learned anything from reading the posts submitted from HoH #1’s 21 contributors, I have learned that this bunch will most likely appreciate a little irreverent humor to start us off. (if you don’t like irreverent humor, just skip the video!)

The response to the announcement of House of Herps has been tremendous, and we are delighted to bring you a fabulous collection of contributions from herp enthusiasts all around the web. In fact, we like to think of each contribution as a gift. In this season of merriment and good cheer, we decided to gift-wrap each present from our contributors. To open each present, simply click on the image, or follow the links in each summary. Enjoy, and Happy Herping!

First up for this very first edition of HoH is Mike Bergin of 10,000 Birds, writing about the Jamaican Croaking Lizard he found in his juice glass! Mike’s visit to Jamaica and his stay at Mocking Bird Hill offered many exotic sights and sounds. You won’t want to miss out on this chance to experience a little piece of the Caribbean. Read the rest of this entry »

Reptiles and amphibians. Collectively and separately they represent life much older than us, each group having taken its turn ruling the planet long before mammals were a twinkle in the cosmos’ eye. First came amphibians, giants by modern standards, larger than the largest dogs and enjoying mastery of the land as top predators. Then reptiles displaced them as kings of Earth, behemoths we would eventually call dinosaurs who often represent a child’s first true interest in science.

But all things change, and mammals slowly climbed the evolutionary ladder until they brushed aside reptiles and amphibians to become the dominant form of life. From little critters scampering about and trying to avoid being stepped on or eaten by our very large reptilian forefathers, over time mammals gave rise to primates and primates gave rise to humans. And as we humans grew and developed and somehow stumbled upon the stage of intelligence, we created the internet! Then we created nature blogging.

We nature bloggers love to celebrate. We hold carnivals for the trees that shelter life around the globe and the plants that grow alongside them, the birds flitting and flying and filling every ecological niche, the invertebrates whose near limitless presence outnumbers and outweighs all other life on the planet, the oceans that offer incomprehensible diversity, and the moths fluttering in and out of our lives on a regular basis. We even celebrate the best science writing in the blogosphere and the very mechanism of biology that gave rise to all the life we see around us.

Yet our cold-blooded ancestors didn’t vanish into the ether. They evolved right along with everything else, and today their children share the world with us as toads, frogs, lizards, turtles and terrapins and tortoises, salamanders and newts, crocodiles and alligators, snakes, and a veritable horde of creatures. We see the gecko walk across the ceiling whilst miraculously defying gravity.  We see the crocodile hunt and kill something as large as a wildebeest. We see the snake whose venom not only subdues but saves lives by treating stroke victims. We see turtle traffic jams with each individual climbing atop the next as everyone vies for a bit of sunshine. We see the poisonous frog with colors so bright that we scarcely can imagine something that beautiful. We see the skink who grows back a tail just as easily as we might grow a fingernail after it’s been trimmed. And with all that beauty and all that magic, we don’t see a blog carnival to celebrate them.

So we decided to change that. Amber of Birder’s Lounge and I (Jason of xenogere) have conspired together to kick off a celebration of all things herpetological. With not too small a portion of co-conspiracy prodding by Ted of Beetles in the Bush, along with the expert guidance of Mike from 10,000 Birds and Nature Blog Network, the time has come for House of Herps, a monthly blog carnival centered on all things amphibian and reptilian.

House of Herps will be a monthly carnival. The first edition will be hosted at the carnival site, House of Herps, after which it will begin traveling to host blogs. The general deadline for submissions is the 15th of each month with the carnival appearing a few days after that. And much to our joyful excitement, we already have submissions for the first carnival from people who knew of our plot to launch this extravaganza.

So if you love herps—if you photograph them, write about them, sketch or paint artwork based on them, study them, or just happen to see one that you mention on your blog—we want to hear from you for House of Herps #1 coming in mid-December. We also want to hear from you if you’re interested in hosting the carnival. Please visit the House of Herps site for contact information, or send your submission links to us at submissions [at] houseofherps.com

This is the new website for House of Herps (HoH), the brand-new blog carnival celebrating Amphibian and Reptile wildlife. We are busy working behind-the-scenes for our first edition to be hosted right here, before heading off to a different host blogger each month.

To keep it simple, blog post submissions are due by the 15th of the month. The HoH carnival will be posted within 3 days – so, on or before the 18th of each month.

Look for an announcement on the Nature Blog Network’s blog next week. If you have a post that you would like to submit, please send it to us at: submissions [at] houseofherps.com