David A. Steen is an American
herpetologist
Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...
and
conservation biologist
Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an int ...
.
[ He is Reptile and Amphibian Research Leader of the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission), and was previously a research professor at ]Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...
, where he completed his Ph.D.[ Steen runs a popular ]Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account where he offers reptile and amphibian identification and dispels myths about oft-maligned snakes such as copperhead
Copperhead may refer to:
Snakes
* ''Agkistrodon contortrix'', or copperhead, a venomous pit viper species found in parts of North America
* ''Austrelaps'', or Australian copperhead, a genus of venomous elapids found in southern Australia and Tas ...
s, cottonmouth
''Agkistrodon piscivorus'' is a species of pit viper in the subfamily Crotalinae of the family Viperidae. It is one of the world's few semiaquatic vipers (along with the Florida cottonmouth), and is native to the southeastern United States. As ...
s, and rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small anim ...
s.[
He won the Mindlin Foundation's "Mindlin Science Communication Prize" in 2017 for his efforts in online ]science communication
Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...
.[ He is author of the book Secrets of Snakes: the Science Beyond the Myths.]salamander
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to the Gulf coastal plain
The Gulf Coastal Plain extends around the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern United States and eastern Mexico.
This coastal plain reaches from the Florida Panhandle, southwest Georgia, the southern two-thirds of Alabama, over most of Mississippi, wes ...
, ''Siren reticulata
The reticulated siren (''Siren reticulata''), also known commonly as the leopard eel, is a species of aquatic salamander in the family Sirenidae. The species, which is endemic to the southeastern United States, was first formally described in 2 ...
'', known as the reticulated siren or leopard eel.[
]
References
External links
@AlongsideWild
— on Twitter
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steen, David A.
American ecologists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)