In Spring 2016 nearly 40 teachers (and their students) and homeschool families participated in our Amphibian Infectious Disease Citizen Science project!  We hope to reach even more in 2017.  Our current efforts on the project involve working to extract DNA from all the frog swabs sent Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) DNA from everyone’s swabs.  Soon, we will be able to share the results of this pilot project...

Joey Brown has recently joined the Siler Lab as a Masters student at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and University of Oklahoma. After growing up flippin’ rocks and chasing snakes throughout Kansas and Missouri, Joey attended the University of Kansas (KU) as an undergraduate student, and transformed his childhood fascination into a passionate pursuit for a career in the...

Cameron is currently teaching a two-week Field Herpetology course at the OU Biological Station on Lake Texoma.  He is joined by graduate TA Nick Huron and undergrad TAs Claire Winfrey and Elyse Ellsworth (all members of the Siler Lab).  The course covers herpetological taxonomy and biology, amphibian infectious diseases, and new research techniques like epithelial microbiome sampling and eDNA water sampling.  Students...

Graduate student Kai Wang has completed the Tibetan portion of his field work and has now crossed the Tibet-Yunnan Province border.  He collected many Japalura (the focal genus for his masters thesis) along the Mekong River in Tibet as well as cool vipers and frogs.  Be sure to also review his previous field update.  Kai is now in NW Yunnan and will continue the survey along...

June marks the end of our normal Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) funded field season.  We had a great year with close to 800 amphibians and reptiles collected!  We visited a total of eight counties in Oklahoma this year, which included nine WMAs and two National Wildlife Refuges (a summary of one refuge trip can be found here).  We look forward to continuing our...

Herpetology Collection Manager Jessa Watters joined an expedition led by Earlham College’s Dr. John Iverson to the uninhabited Allen’s Cays and Bushhill Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas from May 16-27.  The trip included a total of 16 field researchers and 6 crew of the ship, the Beacon Won.  We visited a total four islands and studied demography and physiology of two endangered iguana...

As field work continues in Oklahoma through early June, under the leadership of field assistant Aaron Geheber, and undergrads Elyse Ellsworth, Brendan Heitz,and Claire Winfrey, the remainder of the Siler Lab prepares for serious international travel for May, June and beyond!  See their research summaries below. Jessa Watters (mid-late May): Jessa joins her undergraduate herpetology mentor, Dr. John Iverson of Earlham College...

The 2016 Oklahoma field season is well underway, with two sampling trips completed so far!  We are continuing the work of documenting Oklahoma biodiversity and amphibian infectious disease that we began in 2015. Last weekend we visited the amazing Ozark Plateau National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oklahoma.  Eight members of the Siler Lab were able to assist in field, allowing us to...

Siler Lab students once again participated in the Honors College’s annual Undergraduate Research Day on April 2, 2016.  Three total projects were presented (see titles below), covering the work of 5 students.  We are incredibly proud of all our undergraduate researchers!  See the full program here. Dylan Lindauer and Elyse Ellsworth*, with Dr. Cameron D. Siler, “Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) Detection in Central Oklahoma” Michelle Penrod and Marie Labonte*,...

Cameron and Nick of the Siler Lab are joined in the Philippines by Sam Noble Museum Invertebrates Curator, Dr. Katrina Menard, University of South Dakota Herpetology PhD candidate, Drew Davis, and Yale University Post-Doc Dr. Oliver Griffith.  All five researchers, plus their Philippine field crew, have spent the last 1.5 weeks in Aurora Province, Luzon Island, Philippines and have collected ~380 herptiles (including...

This past weekend, 15 other OU McNair scholars and I traveled to the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas to present our research from the past year.  The McNair Scholars Program is a federal program to prepare undergraduate underrepresented students for doctoral studies through research and mentorships.  I presented the research that the Siler Lab and I conducted over the presence of Chytrid fungus in Southeast Oklahoma. ...