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Reptiles of North American Deserts

The Deserts of North America are home to three biodiversity hotspots: The Sonoran Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, and the Mojave Desert, each of which is teeming reptile biodiversity.

This course (which will be listed as BIO 559R) will be focused on the ecology, evolution, biogeography, and conservation of extant reptiles (with a light spattering of geology and paleontology), with an emphasis on a few active research projects). The curriculum would be loose, mainly consisting of papers and field guides. We will observe reptiles in their natural environments in each of the major North American Deserts: Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Mojave– including within three National Parks (White Sands, Big Bend, and Grand Canyon).

Students will spend multiple nights at three research stations: The K-Bar field station (Big Bend National Park; Chihuahuan Desert), the Southwestern Research Station (near the Chiricahua wilderness; Sonoran Desert), and Lytle Preserve (Beaver Dam Conservation Area; Mojave Desert). Additionally, we will visit the American International Rattlesnake Museum, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, the Museum of Southwestern Biology, and the Chiricahua Desert Museum.

The field portion of this course would run from April 23 - May 10, and there would be one additional “reunion” day where students would do presentations at the Bean museum. The course will consist of just 8 students, and funding requirements and scholarship opportunities are currently being sorted out.

If you are interested, please fill out the following form:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/YAEbXrrvv9

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