Dr Mark D. Scherz

A gloriously rotund brown frog flecked with burnt umber, resting on a dead leaf. This is the iconic Rhombophryne testudo. He is a thing of beauty.

After ELEVEN YEARS of work, today I finally submitted my 205-page monograph on the diamond frogs of Madagascar, genus Rhombophryne, in which we are describing several new species. Feels so good to finally have it submitted. I can't wait to share the new species with you all! 🧪🐸🟤💎

🔁Please share - we remind the SMBE community that the Call for Symposia for #SMBE2026 in Copenhagen is open.

We invite you to submit a symposium proposal to help shape the scientific content of our annual meeting.

🗓️Deadline: October 15th

More info: smbe2026.org/symposia
@official-smbe.bsky.social

A sunrise over a football field full of geese.

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

The opening page of the Silmarillion, signed at the bottom 'Jane Goodall'

So sorry to hear of Dame Jane Goodall's passing. What a life to celebrate, though! One of my most prised possessions is my copy of the Silmarillion, which she signed for me in 2014 when she came to deliver a talk in Munich. She said that she, too, admired the works of Tolkien. 🧝‍♀️💎💎💎

Yup, the museum tag is attached to it.

Rhombophryne coronata rendered in 3D from a micro-CT scan. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good.

Spent a little time in the last couple of day working with micro-CT scans of frogs again. This is the holotype of Rhombophryne coronata. I’m hoping to submit a manuscript including a plate of this specimen’s skeleton tomorrow! 🧪🐸🩻

@herphighlights.bsky.social heya, the call you played as Heterixalus boettgeri in Episode 235 is a microhylid, not a Heterixalus. It may be a Plethodontohyla or a Platypelis. Heterixalus have cricket-like stridulating calls.

+++ Hissscord🐍 NEWS +++

Our new server is live! 🐍
A free space for young and experienced herpetologists to connect, collaborate, and get quick help.

💬 DM me here on Bluesky or elsewhere for an invite to the Discord channel!

Please feel free to share and repost!

#Herpetology #SEH2025 #Hissscord

Anders demonstrating a car net. It fits on top of a car. You get the picture.

CAR NETS

Anders in front of a crowd in a lecture hall, with his title slide in the background, which reads ‘Citizen Science as a Pathway to Innovative Research: from Schoolyards to Car Nets’

Anders wearing the same binoculars he would wear as a child when birdwatching

Newly minted Full Professor Anders P. Tøttrup is giving his inaugural lecture as Professor of #CitizenScience at the @nhmdk.bsky.social now. 🧪🦅🦩🦢

Representatives of this morphotype on every continent! Sometimes multiple in close proximity, even!

Turns out there are only so many things that it is easy to do with the anuran bauplan, but shifting among them happens with comparative ease. Generating something truly novel is comparatively rare and weird, but has happened quite a few times—and those instances are of course super interesting! 🐸🧪

I think this is such an elegant demonstration of the predictability with contingency that is so often associated with convergent evolution. Frogs in general are an awesome demonstration of this, because we see assemblage-scale morphotype repetition across land masses. 🧪🐸

Ranidae: Rana temporaria, a generic brown frog from Denmark.

Dicroglossidae: Limnonectes paramacrodon, a generic brown frog from Borneo.

Mantellidae: Aglyptodactylus madagascariensis, a generic brown frog from Madagascar.

Pyxicephalidae: Amieitia tenuoplicata, a generic brown frog from Tanzania.

Four generic frogs? No! These are members of four different FAMILIES from Europe, Borneo, Madagascar, and East Africa, convergently evolved on the generic brown frog morphotype! 🧪🐸

I. I read ‘trans-specific exit row’ and I was SO confused for a second. Like wow what airline company has one of those‽ how does that even work??¿? 🏳️‍⚧️✈️ 😅

This is why we cannot trust colour in frogs to help much with species identification. It can be extremely variable, and features that might look diagnostic in a small set of specimens often are absent in some portion of the population. This poses challenges for taxonomy and field ID 🧪🐸

17 individuals of Anodonthyla theoi, tangling from greenish to copper to almost black. Some have stripes, some have big white spots. This is why we cannot trust colour in frogs to help much with species identification.

Check out the remarkable variation in the Critically Endangered Anodonthyla theoi. It is restricted to a tiny area of littoral forest in SE Madagascar, and its habitat is extremely threatened by deforestation and fire. When the rains come, males emerge from tree holes and leaf axils to call. 🐸🧪

Yeah some photos were taken 😅

A frozen caiman curled up on a yellow metal and wood trolley on cobblestone and flagstones. It could almost be sleeping.

Just another day at the office! Today, we needed to get a specimen out of the freezer to be prepped as a skeleton, so we pulled out this nice big Paleosuchus trigonatus. 🐊🧪

Holy hell, it's beautiful!

Polypedates colletti, a brown treefrog with a very pointy nose

Phrynoidis asper, a toad that is very Toad™

Occidozyga cf. laevis, a delightfully round and absolutely Built puddle frog

Limnonectes sp. Honestly I have no idea which species this is, I just know it's one that doesn't have a bos on the head. If it weren't from Borneo you might think it's a Rana or a Lithobates or something. It's brown and froggy with a dark tympanic field.

Look at the fantastic variety of shape in these wonderful frogs I photographed in Gunung Mulu National Park on Borneo last year. Amazing how much frogs can do with so little. 🐸🧪

Most of my group gathered in one place for the first time possibly ever. From left to right, former master's student Collin Bos, current postdoc Alice Petzold, me (Mark D. Scherz), former bachelor's student Joris Fleck, and current master's student and former bachelor's student Clara Keusgen.

Having a diffuse research group means that I rarely get to spend any time with my group in 3D. It was a great delight therefore to be joined by @collinbos.bsky.social @alicepetzold.bsky.social @njorisfleck.bsky.social and @clarakeusgen.bsky.social together in Bonn for the #SEH2025! 🧪🐸🦎🐍🧬

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Skeletons and skull closeup of some little frogs. A plate from an upcoming paper.

Just a small taste of some of the work we have going on behind the scenes right now. It feels like everything is painfully slow at the moment, but there are some very nice things on the way!
These are skeletons of type specimens of Platypelis tetra, a little microhylid from NE Madagascar 🇲🇬 🧪🐸

Yup. Accurate. Applies to frogs, too.

PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research Natural History Museum Denmark Faculty of SCIENCE University of Copenhagen   Natural History Museum Denmark invites applicants for a PhD fellowship in coll

Please share widely! The Natural History Museum Denmark @nhmdk.bsky.social is offering a PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research, focused on dark taxa & unknown species, pref. including representatives of Danish flora, fauna or geology.

candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research

A wonderful opportunity for a fully funded #PhD position in collections-based research at Natural History Musuem Denmark @nhmdk.bsky.social

Reach out if interested in a PhD project in #peatland #sedges, #aquatic plants, or #ferns! 🌿🍂🌾

#globalchange #eco-evo

employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...

congratulations on the new role, and on the success of the symposium! Sorry we didn't get a chance to chat properly!

My colleague, Alice Petzold and I are standing in front of the symposium schedule in the Grass Snake Room at the 23rd European Congress of Herpetology. We are holding yellow and red cards to signal to the presenters at the symposium how much time they have left for their presentation.

Alice and I opening our symposium "Herp-omics: a genomic perspective on earth’s herpetofaunal diversity".

Firstly, @alicepetzold.bsky.social and I organized our first symposium: Herp-omics: a #genomic perspective on earth’s herpetofaunal #diversity, with 27 participants and it was great fun. The variety of projects showed just how exciting this field of research is. #systematics #conservation #ecology

PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research Natural History Museum Denmark Faculty of SCIENCE University of Copenhagen   Natural History Museum Denmark invites applicants for a PhD fellowship in coll

The @nhmdk.bsky.social is offering a #PhD position in collections-based taxonomic or similar research, ideally focused on 'dark taxa' occurring in Denmark. The call is a broad one. Get in touch with a relevant curator if you're interested! 🧪🐝🪰💐🪱
candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...