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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: November 14, 2011
School of Biology Adjunct Professor Joseph Mendelson recently published a paper in the American Scientist on global amphibian extinctions. He reflects on his personal experience witnessing multiple extinctions of amphibian species from fully protected parks and reserves in Mexico and Central and South America.
As an amphibian taxonomist, he describes the sobering reality of "discovering" species new to science after they have already gone extinct-the discovery being made from the shelves of natural history museums, not in their former cloud forest habitats. These discoveries resemble paleontology, but they are so recent that the term does not fit. Mendelson suggests the term "Forensic Taxonomy" instead. Dr. Mendelson also is Curator of Herpetology at Zoo Atlanta and current President of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. He co-teaches Georgia Tech Biology undergraduates a research methods course at Zoo Atlanta.
