Museum specimen collecting and the allocation of funds for maintaining collections are a hot topic in today’s world.  Yet, natural history museums are a necessary part of documenting the history of life on earth, from historical through paleontological collections to and modern collections of living species on the planet. These specimens and their associated data are invaluable as sources of research on...

The Siler Lab and the Herpetology Department of the Sam Noble Museum are once again sponsoring a school outreach program entitled Fantastic Frogs to educate Oklahoma students and teachers about local amphibians, through classroom activities that recreate frog calls (Grades K-5) or discoveries of amphibian adaptations and identifications (Grades 6-12).  All activities also include live animals! Save the Frogs Day (April 25, 2015) is...

In association with the recent Siler Lab grants from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Oklahoma City Zoo, an undergraduate researcher (Rachel Flanagan) has begun sampling for chytrid in historical museum specimens, dating as far back as the 1920’s. Museum specimens are being swabbed from all 23 Oklahoma counties that will be sampled during the next 3 years of funding.  Currently, Rachel...

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) With the generous support of the Office of the Vice President of Research, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program offers financial assistance for scholarly and creative projects under the mentorship of a faculty member.  Dozens of research projects are funded each year so that undergraduates may undertake ambitious and exciting research endeavors. This competitive program is open to...

In an era when budgets are tight for families, businesses, universities, and governments, it is sometimes difficult to see the value in museums and their curators. Museums provide a necessary service to scientists and the public by housing specimens in a long-term stable environment, providing specimens and data for research, training new generations of scientists, bridging the gap between research, education, and...

Upon researching what “Boomer Sooner” actually means, my mind wondered how boomers and sooners have actually made their way settling in and after, during the “Land Run of 1889.” This was the period when settlers could claim 160 acres of public land by way of a race, to claim that land. A boomer is a settler during that time who believed that...

This past Friday, October 24th, Cameron, Jessa, Elyse, Nick, Alyssa and I took a short trip to Oliver’s Woods to look for herps. The nature area is located at the intersection of Highway 9 and Chautauqua and is owned by the University of Oklahoma. We spent around an hour and a half overturning logs, watching for movement in the fallen leaves, and wandering...

Tess’s interest in herpetology was sparked when she was previously awarded with a fellowship from the Philippine Commission on Higher Education to the University of Kansas to complete her dissertation work on the phylogeography and conservation of the Philippine slender toads (genus Ansonia). In 2014, Tess was awarded a Fulbright Advanced Research Fellowship sponsored by Dr. Cameron Siler. Tess arrived in the...

Last Sunday, Sept. 28, the Siler lab participated in the Sam Noble Museum’s annual Science in Action and Object ID Day event.  Over 700 members of the public came by to learn about the museum’s galleries, collections, and additional University of Oklahoma participants, such as the Sooner Lunar and OU Botany Club. The Siler lab shared 9 historical and recent specimens collected...

The genus Hologerrhum is one of four endemic snake genera found only in the Philippines. Because there were no male specimens of H. philippinum in collections, taxonomists thought this might have been an all-female, parthenogenetic species which could reproduce without the presence of a male. During recent fieldwork in the northern Philippines, an adult male H. philippinum was collected in mixed primary-...

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