5 November 2001

The

SAURIAN EDITORIAL

Cyberlizard speaks!



APOLOGIES ARE DUE for a long gap since the last editorial. This was due to a number of things, including holidays and other priorities, not least on the website. However we now seem to be back on track.

Since the summer we have done considerable work on the Lacertidae pages, which has also led to a parallel work on the European herp pages as these included many of the lacertid lizards, notably Podarcis and Lacerta. There are in fact more lacertid lizards in the world (including Asia and Africa as well as Europe), and many of these are somewhat underresearched or -documented. The taxonomy of this large family is also in a state of flux, although there is a lot of DNA work going on into the European species at least. Work is also continuing on the geckos (we added the entire Sphaerodactylinae subfamily within the last two months), monitors and anoles. We also recently added a Brief Overview of the Skinks, done in much the same format as our overview of the agamid lizards. As its title suggests, this was to give a concise summary of the many different skink species (another underrrepresented group in herpetology literature) around the world. We will be adding more detailed information on the skink genera, but as a long-term process rather in the same way as we have done for the geckos.

We have recently also done a large amount of updating of magazine indexes, as the anurans and invertebrates were somewhat underrepresented. Sadly two herpetological hobbyist magazines have folded since the summer: Pet Reptile and Reptile and Amphibian Hobbyist. The loss of the latter was more surprising (TFH, their publishers, put it down to rising costs) and will probably be more keenly felt. I would urge anyone with an interest in herpetology as a serious hobby to support one of the continuing publications, and to inform us of any that we may have missed.

This brings us on to the subject of the animal rights lobby and their vociferous opposition to reptile events (usually "fayres") open to the public. Having peaked in the first half of this year with getting public events in Walsall and Bradford closed, they have since been unable to stop at least two events, one on private land and one for members only of the International Herpetological Society, from going ahead, although this did not stop them in the first case at least from propagating their usual shrill warnings about the dangers of poisoning the public. Chris Newman of the Reptilian in particular has done excellent work in defence of the hobby. We hope to have some more material on this debate soon.

As always we tend to think ahead of long-term projects, and the FAQ is one I would like to incorporate eventually. Notes on the chamaeleons are probably quite a way away, however, as are non-herp related subjects such as IT or further music reviews.

Thanks again to everyone who has sent us E-mails recently. If for any reason I haven't replied to you, please let us know and I will try to do so again.



CYBERLIZARD



Former Cyberlizardspeaks
(as if you cared)

 

June 2001
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