The study of biological form is a vital goal of evolutionary biology and functional morphology. We review an emerging set of methods that allow scientists to create and study accurate 3D models of living organisms and animate those models for biomechanical and fluid dynamic analyses. The methods for creating such models include 3D photogrammetry, laser and CT scanning, and 3D soft- ware....

Despite its recognition since the early 1900s, the agamid lizard Pseudocalotes austeniana remains known based on 3 vouchered specimens only from the East Himalaya, and little is known about its general biology. During herpetological surveys of Tibet, China, we collected 3 specimens of P. austeniana from Medog County, southeastern Tibet, including the first juvenile specimen ever vouchered. We provide a detailed description...

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Standardization and repeatability is at the heart of all scientific research, yet very little literature exists to standardize mor- phometric measurements within vertebrate groups. This is particularly true for amphibians. Our study attempts to rectify this lack of methodological standardization for the measurement of morphological characters in anurans through an ex- tensive literature survey of 136 species descriptions representing 45 currently recognized...

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Background Aposematic Batesian mimicry occurs when one relatively harmless species has a close resemblance to a dangerous or poisonous different species. Over time, as the two species live in close proximity, the individuals of the harmless species that more closely resemble the dangerous species will have higher survival and reproduction rates, leading to a population that appears dangerous. This mimicry is often...

Lamprolepis smaragdina is a tree-dwelling skink found throughout the Philippine Islands, eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the islands of the West Pacific. One of three recognized subspecies, L. s. philippinica, is endemic to the Philippine islands, which means it is found in these islands and nowhere else in the world. Populations of this species range in color from green on the...

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-...

We provide the first report on the herpetological biodiversity (amphibians and reptiles) of the northern Sierra Madre Mountain Range (Cagayan and Isabela provinces), northeast Luzon Island, Philippines. New data from extensive previously unpublished surveys in the Municipalities of Gonzaga, Gattaran, Lasam, Santa Ana, and Baggao (Cagayan Province), as well as fieldwork in the Municipalities of Cabagan, San Mariano, and Palanan (Isabela Province),...

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