| | Accession Number | 5002944 |
| | Title | Snake species of the world - a taxonomic and geographical reference |
| | Project Description | The ability to inventory species in many parts of the world, and even within the Western |
| | Hemisphere, often is hampered by a lack of published summaries of the scientific and taxonomic |
| | literature, and other information on components of those faunas. Understanding what species of |
| | amphibians and reptiles occur where often is integral to proper planning for their conservation and |
| | management, and for evaluation of areas and habitats subject to commercial exploitation. Too |
| | often, information on these important vertebrate groups is dispersed through a highly technical |
| | literature and remains poorly reviewed in many geographic areas of the world. The National |
| | Museum of Natural History is a leader in the field of taxonomic, evolutionary, and biogeographic |
| | studies and is in a position to contribute in a major way towards establishing the taxonomic |
| | underpinnings so necessary to understanding biodiversity on a world scale. The compilation of |
| | Amphibian Species of the World (Frost, 1985) has greatly advanced our ability to consider |
| | amphibians in broader studies of ecology and biodiversity, and similar summaries are needed for |
| | other groups. The last comprehensive work on snakes was published in 1896. The published |
| | results of this project will include a thorough review and compilation of pertinent taxonomic |
| | literature on snakes in a three-volume work titled Snake Species of the World; they will serve as |
| | companion volumes to that on amphibians. These volumes represent coverage of an important |
| | group of vertebrates and constitute a crucial and baseline reference for ongoing studies of |
| | vertebrate communities, biodiversity, and ecosystem management. |
| | Keywords | biodiversity, geographic distribution, nomenclature, snake classification, snake species, |
| | taxonomy, world, |
| | Principal | Roy McDiarmid, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Roy_McDiarmid@usgs.gov; Jonathan |
| | Investigators | A Campbell, University of Texas at Arlington: campbell@uta.edu; T'Shaka A TourT, Smithsonian |
| | Institution, National Museum of Natural History: touret@nmnh.si.edu; |
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