The Siler Lab is attending the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) annual meeting in Lawrence, KS on July 30-Aug. 2, 2015.  See below for titles and abstracts: Preliminary screening of natural history collections for historical presence of amphibian infection disease in Oklahoma by Rachel L. Flanagan, Jessa L. Watters, Cameron D. Siler Amphibian populations are declining all over...

Field work by the Siler Lab and sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation continued in April 2015, with visits to the following sites (see photos here).  A summary of the animals collected at each site are visible below (Table 1). April 10-12: McGee Creek WMA, Stringtown WMA, Hugo WMA (Jessa Watters, Elyse Freitas, Rachel Flanagan, Dylan Lindauer, Matt DeRuyter) April 17-19: Cookson Hills WMA and vicinity of...

We have been extremely busy in SE Oklahoma this Spring!  So busy that we have fallen behind on updating our field blogs 🙂 Below are some highlights from the most recent trips.  We hope to get more info out to you all soon. April 10-12: McGee Creek WMA, Stringtown WMA (Jessa Watters, Elyse Freitas, Rachel Flanagan, Dylan Lindauer, Matt DeRuyter) April 24-26: Robbers Cave WMA,...

During our 5 week expedition across Gabon our team increased Gabon’s national amphibian collection by 67%. We contributed specimens from three previously unrepresented provinces in Gabon. In response to this massive influx of specimens, the Smithsonian Institute—who is currently managing Gabon’s national collection—flew us down to Gamba to help catalogue and reorganize the museum with its curator Elie Tobi. The museum in...

Siler Lab members (Jessa Watters, Nick Huron and Rachel Flanagan) were joined in the field in April 2015 by local  journalist Dan Bewley, creator of the blog Science is OK, through which he shares insights into scientific research occurring around Oklahoma.  While it was a little odd to be doing field work with a microphone stuck down the front of our waders...

Our expeditions to Gabon to study to the river biogeography of the Ogooué was very productive. In 5 weeks, we sampled over 1000 amphibians and reptiles from 7 different stations spread around the entire river. Since Gabon has seen so little herpetological work it was impossible for us to know which species would be the focal species of the study until we...

The Siler Lab has completed two trips to Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in SE Oklahoma in March, 2015; one with only 4 members of the Siler Lab and the second with members of Dr. Siler’s OU Herpetology course.  Check out the summary statistics below (Table 1) and the amazing compilation video created by a student in the Herpetology course.  The Siler Lab continues...

The website for the Sam Noble Museum of Oklahoma Natural History has had a make-over!  Every collection now has online access to databases, history, archives, loan policies, etc.  Please take the time to explore the new Herpetology Department page. Contact Jessa Watters with any questions: jwatters@ou.edu or 405-325-7771....

The final curator in our series, Dr. Charles C. Carpenter, Professor and Curator Emeritus Dr. Charles C. Carpenter, “Chuck” to his friends and “Doc” to his 50 graduate students, fell in love with biology and herpetology at an early age. Chuck began his formal education at Northern Michigan University in 1939, graduated in 1943, and immediately joined the Army Medical Corps, but...

This week, we hear from Dr. Janalee P. Caldwell, Professor and Curator Emeritus I was Curator of Amphibians at the Sam Noble Museum and professor in the Biology Department at OU from 1990 to 2011.  My research focused on the ecology, behavior, and systematics of amphibians, particularly dendrobatid and aromobatid frogs.  In addition to curatorial duties, I was involved in designing museum exhibits, teaching undergraduates, and...

This week, we hear from George Lynn Cross Research Professor and Curator Emeritus, Dr. Laurie J. Vitt: I was Curator of Reptiles at the Sam Noble Museum and Professor in the OU Biology Department for 21 years, following eight years as Professor of Biology at UCLA. I am currently Curator and Professor Emeritus after retiring in 2011. Much of my more recent research has focused...