The study of amphibians and reptiles has a long and proud tradition at the University of Florida. Past herpetological luminaries that were faculty at UF include Archie Carr and Walter Auffenberg and many others passed through as students or postdocs (including Frank Blair, Carl Gans, Alan Holman, Chuck Meyers, J. Alan Pounds, Larry David Wilson, and George Zug); check out our UF Herp alumni page.
Herpetology continues to grow and thrive at UF. We have a broad range of active “herp-related” faculty based in Gainesville at UF, including Karen Bjorndal, Ray Carthy, Steve Johnson, Ana Longo, Robert Ossiboff, Christina Romagosa, Brett Scheffers, Emma Schachner, and Ed Stanley. Others active in herpetological research at UF include Jason Bourque and Coleman Sheehy.
The herpetology collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History is among the top ten largest in the US. Check out our collections or learn more about Florida herps from the resources put together by our former collections manager Dr. Kenneth Krysko.
Other notable resources include:
- Checklist of amphibians and reptiles on the UF campus
- Florida snake identification guide
- BioGator: data portal for UF campus biodiversity
If you’d like to schedule a research visit or have questions about herpetology or our collections, contact us in the Division of Herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.