How about a handbook for worldwide reptiles and amphibians?

[Ian McConell]

In the past few days, a new book illustrating all currently known living, non-domesticated mammals, called “All the Mammals of the World”, was published by Lynx Edicions*. This magnificent book most probably consists the final stone in a monumental work that started in 2009 and aimed to provide up to date information and accurate illustrations for all living mammalian families and species. Before it, a similar extraordinary task was also carried out successfully by a predecessor series on birds.

Even before the completion of the bird’s series and after the successful start of the mammalian one, there were some “hopes” here and there (e.g., like comments in zoological forums) of a third, similar series that would cover the final major terrestrial clade of vertebrate zoology, namely herpetology (reptiles and amphibians). However, a series like this hasn’t come as of yet.

As such, mostly because I am curious if those “sparks” are still alive, I would like to ask the following: Do you believe that a series concerning reptiles and amphibians should or even could be produced by the company, providing that it will retain the same extremely high standards of the avian and mammalian ones?

Personally, I believe that a series like that would be extremely helpful and much needed in our times. Currently, our knowledge on various life aspects of reptiles and amphibians is constantly increasing, and as such changing the general opinion we have for them. Meanwhile, our negative impact on the environment (e.g., habitat destruction and alteration, pollution and our contribution to climate change) still remains high and even increases in many areas, pushing more and more species towards extinction. This is heavily true for the two aforementioned groups, with almost half (41%) of registered amphibians and 1 in 5 (21%) reptiles under a danger category in IUCN and a considerable number already extinct. As a result, I believe that a work like that, combining detailed, up to date information with quality photos and illustrations of every species could be valuable as a comprehensive source for those groups in a time where their lives are better understood, but their members increasingly endangered.

*To those unfamiliar with, Lynx Edicions is a Catalan-based publishing company that was founded in 1989. It later gained fame by successfully publishing the award-winning series “Handbook of the Birds of the World” and the similarly well-received “Handbook of the Mammals of the World".

[Michal Szkudlarek]

Hi. It would be a hard but needed work. However, we don't know much about many species of herptiles, also species discoveres are ongoing intensely.