Finding funding for a PhD project is a serious challenge. If you are flexible and a little lucky, you can maybe find a project that suits you for which funding has already been acquired. But if you are like me and your field of interest is limited, or you have […]
Today (24 February, 2017) Shea M. Lambert, Carl Hutter, and I have published a new species of diamond frog, genus Rhombophryne, in the Open Access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution: meet Rhombophryne nilevina Lambert, Hutter & Scherz, 2017. The story of the discovery of this frog is quite a thrilling one, […]
The Madagascar-endemic genus Gephyromantis Methuen, 1920 contains an ecologically diverse radiation of frogs, from totally terrestrial species found far from water, to species only ever found a couple of metres from it; from large, robust frogs to dainty, fragile ones. Their calls range from loud, rasping croaks, to high pitched […]
A paper by my colleagues and me appears today (7 February 2017) in PeerJ, describing a new species of gecko from northern Madagascar with large scales that come off with extreme ease. This is actually a characteristic of the whole genus Geckolepis, to which the new species belongs, and has […]
December 2016 was quite a month for Madagascar-related publications. Hawlitschek et al. published (in early access) a paper on the biogeography of geckos of the genus Ebenavia (paywalled); Schulze et al. described the ‘remarkably dull’ tadpole of Mantidactylus grandidieri (PDF); and Prötzel et al. reported two cases of potential hibernation […]
Marojejy is a rainforest-clad mountain massif in northeastern Madagascar. The park was established in 1952 as a strict nature reserve, but was changed to a national park in 1998[1]. Several notable biological research expeditions have been led to this mountain, the most significant of which was the Goodman expedition in […]
After two weeks of packing, planning, and other prpre-expedition normalcies, finally I am off to Madagascar – I in fact just got on the S-Bahn to the airport, helped in no small amount by my partner Ella. The expedition ahead promises to be a very interesting one. Together with […]
In August, I re-lauched this website after transitioning hosting (having basically lost a year on the blog due to the terrible decision to try freehosting.com. Seriously. Beware.), and gave a review of most of what I’d been up to over the course of that year. It was a tough one. […]
With the rebirth of this website, I wanted to give a little progress report for the last year, and what I am working on at the moment. In October of 2015 I completed my MSc in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and almost immediately […]
From December 2015 to January 2016, I travelled with a team of researchers from the UK and Madagascar to a remote forest in Northern Madagascar. Our goal was to characterise the reptile and amphibian fauna of this forest, and to study a phenomenon called the ‘edge effect’ and how it influences […]
Please be aware that due to hosting problems, I have had to re-build this website from the top. It will be a few days before everything is working again. Thanks for your understanding, Mark D. Scherz
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. […]
