Tucson Herpetological Society

Wildlife groups’ legal challenge: Feds hanging imperiled Sonoran desert tortoise out to dry - Western Environmental Law Center Today, wildlife advocates challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in federal court for denying Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for the Sonoran desert tortoise in 2022. The Des...

For the torts!🐢
Represented by our team at WELC, advocates at @wildearthguardians.bsky.social @westernwatersheds.bsky.social @deserttortoise.bsky.social @tucsonherps.bsky.social are challenging the USFWS in fed court for denying the Sonoran desert tortoise ESA protections: bit.ly/SonoranTortoise

This Monday at 7pm MST Dr. Stacey Weiss will present, Egg Protection in the Absence of Parental Care: The gut and reproductive micro-biome of Sceloporus lizards and its role in providing anti-fungal protection to eggs. To attend in person or virtually, click on the link in our bio

Year of the Snake: a serpent selection to celebrate Lunar New Year! Enjoy some of our favourite snake research from across our journals.

A link to some rad snake developments so far this year!
#yearofthesnake2025 @snakeweek.bsky.social
@iucn-snake.bsky.social #snakeweek2025

@snakeweek.bsky.social

Happy Lunar New Year! 2025 is Year of the Snake! THS is excited about sharing great content and programming with @snakeweek.bsky.social as the year progresses. Stay tuned!

“In the long run, there are no secrets in science. The universe will not cooperate in a cover-up.”

— Arthur C. Clarke

Thanks, Sir Mike!

Follow this guy!

This is a wild plan to combat cane toads in Australia:

What trippy worm ooze can teach us about saving nature A conversation with a desert conservationist about giant sandworms, toad tripping, and more.

THS President, Robert Villa’s take on Dune’s Sand Worms and Sonoran Desert Toads with @themadstone.bsky.social

A New Take on Natural Selection Through a mix of fieldwork and laboratory experimentation, Yale Professor—and newly minted MacArthur Fellow—Martha Muñoz, PhD ’14, is gaining insight into how species’ behavior and physical traits sha...

gsas.harvard.edu/news/new-tak...

Loss of Earth’s old, wise, and large animals Earth’s old animals are in decline. Despite this, emerging research is revealing the vital contributions of older individuals to cultural transmission, population dynamics, and ecosystem processes and...

First post here.
I’ll unpack our new paper @science.org highlighting the loss of old animals and calling for ‘longevity conservation’

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Darwin's first thoughts about the Great Tree of Life, from his 1837 notebook.

Happy 165th birthday for the publication of The Origin of Species, and people thinking deeply about evolutionary trees. Darwin's notebook entry about phylogenesis, show here, is older, at 187 years, and became the basis for the only figure originally published in The Origin.

Just finished touring our new docents through the collections. On the floor, the museum uses our specimens at every turn.

Here’s my most recent essay on why natural history matters (more available on the publications page of my website). static1.squarespace.com/static/5186a...