In 2014, I started working on the taxonomy of the diamond frogs of the genus Rhombophryne, a poorly-known group of semi-fossorial narrow-mouthed frogs from Madagascar. Since then, my colleagues and I have more than doubled the described species in the genus, and we know of several more candidate species that are […]
Today, the 4th of February 2020, we have published a paper resolving the soft-nosed Malagasy chameleons of the Calumma nasutum species complex in the Open Access journal Vertebrate Zoology. In the paper, led by Dr David Pröztel, we clarify the identity of old names in this species complex, and describe […]
We’re officially in the 2020s! It’s the time of year when I look back on the academic events of my last year! My 2019 started with fondue and raclette, surrounded by friends. But on the 2nd of January I was back at it already, working hard on what would take […]
As a result of their highly permeable skin, frogs are not exactly great at crossing oceans. A few species are able to reproduce in brackish water, but for the most part, salt water is a pretty strong barrier to frogs. Yet, curiously, there are a few islands across the world […]
Hot off the press today in PLoS ONE, my colleagues and I have published a paper describing five new species of frogs, including a new genus, Mini, containing three species that we have dubbed with punning names: Mini mum, Mini scule, and Mini ature. The largest of these is 14 mm long, the […]
The culmination of three and a half years is finally here. Tomorrow as I write this, the 21st of March, 2019, I will submit my PhD thesis, entitled ‘On the value of systematics for the study of evolution: insights from the reptiles and amphibians of Madagascar’*. It has been a […]
As readers of the blog and followers on twitter are probably aware, I work a lot on chameleons. I’ve been involved in the description of a few species previously (including three earlier this year and one last year), and earlier this year I was involved in the discovery of bone-based […]
While I have been focussing most of my efforts over the last months on the most important publications for my PhD thesis, I’ve still been involved in a number of other papers. This week, two of these have been published: two new species of Guibemantis frogs from northern Madagascar published in […]
On the 4th of June 2018 a festschrift was published by the journal Alytes in honour of the 70th birthday of Alain Dubois of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris. Amongst the contributions was a paper by my colleagues and me, describing two new species of Gephyromantis from northern Madagascar, fittingly […]
Continuing our work on the small arboreal chameleons of the Calumma nasutum species group, today my colleagues and I have published a new paper in which we describe three new species from the C. guibei complex. These new chameleon species are marvellously different, with one having a rainbow of colour, another having […]
Most of the time when taxonomists discover new species it is a gradual transition from ‘hmm, this looks a little different’ to ‘yes this is certainly new to science’—but not always! Today, my colleagues and I have described a new species of frog from northern Madagascar that was immediately recognised […]
It is around the time of year where blogs tend to publish reviews of their posts of the previous year, and academics think back to their achievements of the past year, so I want to take an opportunity to do both here. My last ‘year in review’ was actually midway […]
This week, we published something a little different than our typical taxonomic output. Roughly three years ago, my friend, fellow PhD student David Prötzel, discovered a fascinating phenomenon in chameleons: shining a UV torch on them made patterns of fluorescence appear on their heads and in some species across their […]
After two months in the forest, fieldwork in Montagne d’Ambre has now drawn to a close. On the 6th of December, we exited the forest in some haste (for reasons that will become apparent below), and over the next few weeks we will be working on getting permits and transportation […]
My team and I have been on Montagne d’Ambre in northern Madagascar since the eleventh of November. At this point we are roughly three fifths through the fieldwork, and two members of the team and I have come out of the field to Antsiranana, the largest city in northern Madagascar, […]
