From the Life History Page to Natural History Notes-46 Years and Counting!

摘要

In the spring of 1972, while visiting the American Museum of Natural History to examine coralsnakes (Micrurus) during my first year in graduate school at the University of Texas at Arlington, I met briefly with Herndon G. Dowling. At the time Herndon was a prominent snake systematist as well as editor of Herpetological Review (HR, "the newsletter on amphibians and reptiles...and the people who study them"), and although I don't recall how the conversation commenced nor from whence came the idea, I left his office newly appointed as editor of what would be called the Life History Page. Perhaps William F. Pyburn, my thesis advisor and a brilliant observer of animal behavior, had "put the bug in my ear" during our many conservations; in any case, thus began a career-long promotion of descriptive natural history for its own sake (e.g., Greene 2005).