Archives for July 2025

The 33rd annual Seibert Awards were presented at the 2025 Joint Meeting of Ichthyology and Herpetology (JMIH) in St. Paul, Minnesota. These awards are named in honor of Henri C. Seibert, an early and endless supporter of the SSAR (having served as an officer for over 20 years).

In recognition of outstanding student presentations at the annual meeting, two awards were given in each of three categories: Conservation, Evolution & Systematics, Ecology, and Morphology & Physiology. Congratulations to the award recipients:

Conservation/Evolution/Systematics:

Winner: Lizzy Patton, Villanova University, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Novel Mitochondrial Rearrangement and Deep Divergences in Widespread Southern African Agama”.

Honorable Mention: Hannah Bradley, University of New Mexico, “Snake Fungal Disease: How long has it been here?”

Ecology:

Winner: Jessica Yates, University of Central Florida, “Tropic Ties or Thermal Drift: Do Spectacled Caimans (Alligatoridae: Caiman) Keep Their Cool in Florida?”

Honorable Mention: Griffin Nicholson, Texas A&M University, “Calls of Introduced Frogs Attract a Threatened Native Species: Phonotactic Responses Between American Bullfrogs and Chiricahua Leopard Frogs”.

Morphology/Physiology:

Winner: Júlia Laterza Barbosa, Yale University, “Arboreality and the evolution of hydrothermal physiology in neotropical frogs”.

Honorable Mention: Natasha Stepanova, University of Michigan, “Backtalk: Clade-specific Determinants of the Number of Precloacal Vertebrae in Squamates”.

For more information on the Henri Seibert award, visit: https://ssarherps.org/ssar-awards/henri-seibert-award/.

The SSAR is looking for a volunteer to fill the Publications Secretary position beginning January 2027. This is one of six officer positions within the society and is a great opportunity for bibliophiles interested in herpetology, or those interested in learning more about leadership roles and the history of the SSAR. The publications office is responsible for storing the society’s inventory of books and journals, filling orders placed on the SSAR Bookstore webpage, fielding questions about missing journals/book orders, and shipping of orders both domestically and internationally.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact the current Publications secretary, Cari Hickerson (chickerson@jcu.edu), for details regarding the duties associated with this position. To learn more, visit https://ssarherps.org/about-ssar/ssar-organization/.

Faculty who are recruiting students for the 2026-2027 academic year (or postdocs to begin any time) can fill out this form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpewCPaGo9RbLWGixhY9EM5qRsxBeG9vQlSqJJp
1ZmAoUlcA/viewform

The form populates a view-only spreadsheet that prospective applicants can use to find labs that match their interests.

Prospective applicants to master’s, PhD, and postdoctoral positions can check out this spreadsheet of faculty who are currently recruiting:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/128uzmPMezRNAe-QgryZyF0jLJYRg_rPT_zE_c-meuuM/edit?usp=sharing

For additional resources on grad school applications, visit: https://ssarherps.org/herp-lab-recruiting/

Questions? Please contact the Website Coordinator (ssarherps@gmail.com).

The Founders Fellowship for Pre-College Scholars, offered by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR), provides pre-college students with a unique opportunity to connect with peers and professional herpetologists. To learn more and get involved, visit the Founders Fellowship webpage.

Please consider donating to the GoFundMe campaign to help grow the endowment. Your contribution will aid in offering more and larger scholarships to offset the rising costs of participating in this program. It is a primary goal of this program to maximize financial accessibility to the program to any deserving student and their family.

To showcase the profound impact of this program, past fellows describe their experiences in this special video linked below. Watch them share their stories and see how your support can ignite a lifelong passion for herpetology!

Donate now: https://gofund.me/e101a5d4

The Dutch Indies Commission and the Herpetological Legacy of Heinrich Boie (1794–1827)

by Jay M. Savage, Marcus Sparreboom and Gregory K. Pregill

The history of Heinrich Boie’s never published, but hugely influential Erpétologie de Java. Boie’s manuscript served as the basis for many descriptions of amphibians and reptiles published between the 1820s and 1850s. The book explores the relationship between Boie and those who came both before and after him and resolves the many nomenclatural issues relating to species of the southeast Asian herpetofauna. A must have volume for systematists, herpetological historians, and anyone interested in tropical snakes, lizards, turtles or frogs.”

Expected publication: early fall 2025. Pre-orders can be placed now, with a 10% discount ($81.00: code SSARMEM) for SSAR members via the SSAR Bookstore: ssar.wildapricot.org/Bookstore and charged to Discover, Mastercard, or Visa. Orders may also be placed by check payable to “SSAR” and mailed to: SSAR, P.O. Box 4022, Topeka, KS 66604, USA (e-mail: cclassi@ssarherps.org).

Plate from Contributions to Herpetology Vol. 35 featuring Draco.

A new section is being established in Herpetological Review, honoring the lives and contributions of individuals from the global herpetological community who have recently passed away. This section will be maintained on the SSAR website with annual updates in Herpetological Review. Information on passings may be sent to the HR associate editor for “In Memory”, Ray Novotny– Naturalist Emeritus, Mill Creek MetroParks, Youngstown & Mahoning County, Ohio (raynovotny@yahoo.com).

Follow the link for more information, and to view the initial publication: https://ssarherps.org/in-memory/.

We are now accepting applications for the 2025-26 SSAR Graduate Student Mentorship Program (GSMP)! Peer mentor applications are due on August 8, and mentee applications are due August 15.

Note: The Graduate Student Mentorship Program is year-long mentorship program for graduate students, and it is different from the Conference Mentorship Program. For more information on the conference program, check out this page: https://ssarherps.org/conference-mentorship-program/

Program overview:

Healthy mentorship relationships and strong professional networks help mentees excel academically and reach their career goals, while also increasing their sense of belonging in an institution or profession. Mentors can also benefit from a successful mentor/mentee relationship. However, many mentors have never received formal mentorship training, leaving them to learn through trial and error.

The SSAR Graduate Student Mentorship Program (GSMP) aims to serve both mentees and early-career mentors through two major aims: 1) to provide new grad students (master’s students plus 1st and 2nd year Ph.D. students) in the field of herpetology with near-peer mentors in the same field who can help them reach their academic and career goals while building connections within the herpetological scientific community, and 2) to provide mentorship training and experience to their peer mentors, who are PhD students in herpetology who have advanced to candidacy or postdocs (and others in temporary positions, like visiting assistant professors) within two years of finishing their Ph.D.

In this program, each peer mentor will be paired with a mentee, with whom they will meet at least once per month throughout the year-long program (September 2025 – August 2026). All participants (mentors and mentees) will attend online training and orientation sessions at the beginning of the program. Peer mentors will attend two additional special topics training workshops during the year, also virtual, and mentees will be offered virtual workshops on a variety of topics. Peer mentors will complete brief monthly reflections on their experiences, which will help guide ongoing development of their mentorship strategies.

The program typically serves 16-20 participants per year. The program coordinator has substantial leadership experience in SSAR (former Chair of the Student Participation Committee, current Co-Chair of the DEI Committee, and current member of the Long-Range Planning Committee) as well as experience coordinating UC Riverside’s Graduate Student Mentorship Program.

Program expectations

To participate in the Graduate Student Mentorship Program, successful applicants will need to agree to a set of program expectations, listed below. Note that all training, workshops, and other events will be held virtually, over Zoom. Applicants do not have to be current SSAR members, but if they are not, then we will help them secure membership upon acceptance into the program.

Participants will be encouraged (but not required) to attend the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (JMIH) in July 2026. SSAR has several travel grants to which students can apply to help with the cost of attending a conference.

Expectations for peer mentors:

• Attend a 2-hour training session in late August or early September
• Attend a 1.5-hour mentor + mentee orientation in mid-September
• Meet virtually with mentee within 1 week after orientation
• Meet with mentee at least once per month, and communicate via email, phone, etc. as needed
• Submit a monthly reflection (~½ to 1 page) to the program coordinator
  • The program coordinator will read and respond to each reflection, helping to connect mentors to resources as necessary
• Attend two 1-1.5-hour professional development workshops during the year

Expectations for mentees:

• Attend a 1.5-hour mentor + mentee orientation in mid-September
• Meet virtually with peer mentor within 1 week after orientation
• The mentor-mentee pair will develop a written agreement of expectations, to be submitted to the program coordinator
• Meet with peer mentor at least once per month, and communicate via email, phone, etc. as needed
• Attend 1-2 academic/professional development workshops during the year (2-3 will be offered, 1 hour each)

Application forms and contact info:

Peer mentor applications are due on August 8, 2025.

Peer mentors should be current Ph.D. candidates, or postdocs (and others in temporary positions, like visiting assistant professors) who defended their dissertation within the past two years, with a research focus on amphibians and/or reptiles. Here is the application form for peer mentors:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9H66D99gNG9YFZ-H0wqf1mWU0TEewo9IZdiozqAlfEYtePg/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=108470661050201700445

Mentee applications are due on August 15, 2025.

Mentees should be 1st or 2nd year Ph.D. students (start date between July 2024 and September 2025) or master’s students with a research focus on amphibians and/or reptiles. Here is the application form for mentees:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1bpfR6ZuD0XHQn8d5-qv8MwVMjJIeY2kSSWWdJgRrnMr-lw/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=108470661050201700445

Questions can be directed to Jessica Tingle, jessica_tingle@brown.edu.