With over 4% of the planet’s named frog species, Madagascar is one of the hottest amphibian hotspots in the world. That number is rising rapidly; earlier this year Madagascar surpassed its 300th described frog. With estimated species numbers above 500, this climb is not expected to end in the near […]
Last week, a paper was published in the Open Access journal PLoS ONE, entitled ‘Distinct Patterns of Desynchronized Limb Regression in Malagasy Scincine Lizards (Squamata, Scincidae)‘, by Aurélien Miralles and colleagues. This paper dealt with a fascinating case of convergent evolution, and I thought I would share my thoughts on […]
For Biodiversity Day 2015, I wanted to shine a spotlight on Madagascar. I don’t have time for a long post, so here are some short points about the biodiversity of Madagascar: First of all, Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island, and stretches 1000 km from northern to southern tip. […]
This week saw the publication of a paper by Javier Nori and Rafael Loyola in the Open Access journal PLoS One, entitled “On the Worrying Fate of Data Deficient Amphibians” (read the article here). The goal of the paper was to discuss the precarious position of amphibians assessed as Data […]
In November of last year (2014), I spent a week in a rainforest in eastern Madagascar with the leading experts on Madagascar’s amphibians, chytrid, captive breeding, and conservation; ACSAM2 it was called, the second meeting to form an updated conservation scheme for the amphibians of Madagascar. As part of this […]
Madagascar has a very high rate of new species descriptions. In the last ten years, more than sixty new species of frogs have been described, and many more are still set to come; an estimated three fifths of Madagascar’s frog species have been described so far (Perl et al. 2014), […]
In South America, bromeliads are famous for playing host to the tadpoles and adults of beautiful, brightly coloured dart frogs. The frogs, in many cases, are totally specialised to particular bromeliad species, and carefully select their choice of nest. The relationship is a close one, and exists across several species […]
The new and improved www.markscherz.com! After almost a year of sitting idle, I have finally managed to completely overhaul this website. The new site has been re-purposed! This is no longer going to be a dedicated photography blog. Instead, it is the joint home of my research and my photography. […]
