THE MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY April 2000 Newsletter
Upcoming Meeting The Vice-president's Report By Tony Gamble
May General Meeting Program: Miniaturization and the Anuran Skull
Guest Speaker: [)arrieIJ.MeUthardt I was not vice-president for fifteen minutes when St Olaf professor [)arriel J. MeUthardt offered to present a talk about his dissertation research for the MHS general meeting. What a great way to start a job. Let's hope all the speakers are this easy to line up. Dan's research concerns the evolution of size and its effects on the skull morphology in frogs. He argues that explaining morphological variation in terms of ecology (ie., natural selection) is incomplete, and that the way a group of arUmals develops may affect how the species in that group evolve. [)an surveyed miniature frogs from around the world and found a lot of similar (but convergent) morphology. He mainly on the chorus frogs focused (Pseudacris), particularly P. ocularis, the Florida little grass frog, which is the smallest four-legged vertebrate in North America. [)an grew up in St Louis, and got a bachelors degree (1992) at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where he worked in the lab of herpetologist Ralph Axtell. He also worked at the Sl Louis Zoo while an undergraduate student Dan started graduate school at the University of Kansas in 1992, where he's been a student of Linda Trueb and Bill [)uellrnan. He plans to defend his
Volume 20 Number 4 dissertation in April. He and his wife moved to Minneapolis in the spring of 1998 where he is a museum associate at the Bell Museum of Natural History and an adjunct instructor at St Olaf College, in Northfield. He has had papers published in several peerreviewed journals including: Journal of
Herpetology, Conseroation Biology, Herpetologica, and The Journal oj the Linnean Sodety. His professional interests include how development affects evolution, the philosophy of and evolutionary explanations, morphology. While speaking at an MHS meeting would normally be enough excitement for one month, Dan and his wife are expecting their first child at the end of May. Congratulations! Upcoming Meetings: June 2, 2000 - Sandra Borland "Axolotls and the Indiana University Axolotl Colony." July 7, 2000 - John Hogston "Monitor Lizards: An overview of the Vararrids of the world." October 6, 2000 - [)r. Robert Powell "Adventures in the Caribbean: Herpetology on Tropical Islands."
Critter of the Month Theme In keeping with our speakers theme Critter of the Month will be anything about frogs. This could be actual frogs, things that eat frogs, things that morph into frogs, things that morph, or something that is a morph. Have fun and be creative.
More on the Tortoise Ban Source: FedNet Government News Date: 03/22/2000 22:22 [)EPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service 9 CFR Parts 74 and 93 Importation and Interstate Movement of Certain Land Tortoises Story Filed: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 10:22 PM EST Washington, DC, Mar. 22, 2000 (FedNetvia COMTEX)We are prohibiting, until further notice, the importation into the United States of certain land tortoises. We are also prohibiting, until further notice, the interstate movement of these land tortoises. These actions are necessary to prevent the introduction and spread of exotic ticks known to be vectors of heartwater disease, an acute infectious disease of ruminants. These actions will provide protection against an outbreak of hearlwater disease in domestic and wild populations of ruminants in the United States. [)ATES: This interim rule is effective March 22, 2000. However, this rule does not apply to importations that are en route to the United States. We invite you to comment on this docket We will consider all comments that we receive by May 22, 2000. AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA. ACTION: Interim rule and request for comments.
2000, FedNet Copyright Government News, all rights reserved. Submitted by Mark Schmidtke