ATree News

Just 10 years after its official discovery, one of Texas' rarest amphibians is in immediate danger of extinction. That's why last week the Center for Biological Diversity and Save Our Springs Alliance filed a notice of intent to sue for emergency protections. The two-inch-long Jollyville Plateau salamander spends its entire life underwater and has experienced serious decline, as well as deformities, from urban development polluting its spring and wet-cave habitats. Now it's in more danger than ever from the city of Austin's planned construction of a water-treatment plant in the heart of its habitat. In fact, one population has already been lost to the mere drilling of a test well.

Webinar on May 20

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/113355248

The New Zealand Government is trying to open important frog habitat on
the Corimandel Peninsula to mining. To raise awareness of the issue,
Phil Bishop will be giving a webinar in which he will discuss the
situation and urge people to write the NZ Gov't officials in charge of
the decision.

In association with the Nature Conservancy and University of California Press, The Washington Post has published distribution maps of the numbers of species, for the major vertebrate groups.

Europe's Amphibians are disappearing:

Read the entire story

Participants in a focus group, held at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center February 5-7, 2010, drafted an outline for the digitization and web mobilization of data and images associated with U.S. biological collections. Input from the community is requested as this plan develops to ensure that it builds appropriately on existing projects and reflects the missions and needs of the nation's diverse biological collections.

Read more about the rediscovery of the Australian frog Litoria castanea
here.

From the Syngenta website (10 March 2010):

"A growing body of research conducted by independent labs across the world is showing that atrazine has no effect on amphibian development."

Check out the Syngenta website for their position on atrazine and amphibians in response to Tyrone Hayes' research.

See also this news item

From The Economist

The idea of saving for a rainy day originated with farm hands whose work depended on the weather. Conservationists are thinking similarly about climate change and freezing the cells of threatened animals as a sort of insurance policy. One problem is that the cells of amphibians—among the animals most endangered by a warming world—have seemed almost impossible to preserve. That may change.
Read more in the Economist.

Bridging the gap between science and policy in amphibian conservation: Beyond 2010

Dear Colleagues,

The United Nations declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. While it is a year to celebrate the planet's living systems, it is also a year to take stock of what has been achieved to curb biodiversity loss and report against the 2010 biodiversity target.

Read the story here.

Sahonagasy.org is a "community website for researchers, conservationists, and amateurs interested in the conservation of Madagascar's unique amphibian fauna."

The site contains literature, photos, and documents (pdfs) relating to conservation strategies for the frogs of Madagascar.

Lake Shed and Eco Park, Barmera, SA, 20th-22nd September 2010
Pre-mixer on Sunday, 19th September
Expedition day Thursday, 23rd September
See attached file for more information!

Dear morphologists,

Preparations for the 9th International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology are gaining momentum and we are looking forward to meeting you in Punta del Este, Uruguay, between 26 and 31 July 2010. The program has excellent plenary speakers and exciting symposia topics presenting the most up to date developments in vertebrate morphology. Please do not miss the opportunity of contributing your own research to this congress. Abstracts for oral and poster presentations will be accepted until February 10.

extracted from an email posting:

We have changed the dates for this based on feedback that highlighted
conflicts with important herpetological conferences and other scientific
events. The new dates for the Emerging Amphibian Diseases conference and workshop
are:

5 day conference (23-27 June) and the 3 day workshop (29 June-1 July) 2010.

Please distribute the attached flyer to your contacts.

Dr Lee Skerratt BAnSc BVSc PhD MACVSc (Epidemiology)
Senior Research Fellow
Amphibian Disease Ecology Group
Biosecurity and Tropical Infectious Diseases Research Group

David Blackburn, James Hanken, and Farish Jenkins of the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology published a paper in Biology Letters which made it among the top 10 science stories of 2008 featured by ScienceNOW, an online publication maintained by AAAS and Science magazine.

Read more here.

Almost 150 years after publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," scientific understanding of evolution continues to take some remarkable twists and turns. This report, with its thoughtful essays, intriguing interviews, and extensive timelines, chronicles the challenges and triumphs of the evolution of evolution.

See the special report from NSF.

Feb 10, 2009

By Carl Zimmer

This article in the New York Times mentions comments by ATree PI David Hillis.

Feb 10, 2009

By Carol Kaesuk Yoon

This article in the New York Times mentions Physalaemus petersi, and ATree PI David Wake's comments on Ensatina and the nature of species.

ATree Anatomical Ontology Workshop, Lawrence, Kansas 2006

ATree Discussion, ASIH-SSAR-HL, Norman OK 2004