A professor of vertebrate zoology
My “Natural History of the Vertebrates” course (BIOL 210), took a field trip up to the newly remodeled Cleveland Museum of Natural History this week. Our goal: be blown away by the amazing vertebrate paleontology exhibits. After gazing at dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs and various ancient fish, mammal and amphibian specimens, I can confidently say “mission accomplished”!
Fall 2026 Natural History of the Vertebrates students (with ‘Happy’ the massive sauropod in the background).
I mostly study salamanders and frogs but occasionally I run into snakes as well. This cute ringneck snake was under a rock alongside a stream at Wooster Memorial Park. A nice autumn surprise.
This past weekend, David Tempone (’27) and I were up on Kelleys Island in Lake Erie sampling for round gobies for David’s I.S. project. We had great weather and actually caught a few gobies, too!
The Ohio Chapter of Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (OHPARC) met this past Thursday (April 16th) at the Cincinnati Zoo. I presented a poster based on our recent publication on a decade of salamander monitoring at Wooster Memorial Park. It was a beautiful day! Thanks to Derek Calhoun (’11), Jacob Gabriel (’15) and Hilary Edgington (’10) for assisting!
On Feb. 5th, we were pleased to welcome the Phi Beta Kappa speaker Dr. Prosanta Chakrabarty from Louisiana State University at the College of Wooster. Prosanta is an old friend from our graduate school days at the University of Michigan. He gave two great talks (see below) and it was wonderful to catch up and reminisce. Come back any time Prosanta!
