Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, died November 25, 2019) was 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 rep ...
, who classified several
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
in the
American Southwest
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...
and in Australia, including the rattling frog. Zweifel contributed immensely to the documentation of the nowadays
Aspidoscelis costatus
''Aspidoscelis costatus'', also known as the western Mexico whiptail, is a species of whiptail lizard endemic to Mexico, including Guerrero, Morelos, and Puebla in southern Mexico, as well as other Mexican states. Its range spans both temperate ...
species. Out of the eight costata subspecies, Dr. Zweifel reported and named five of them. Zweifel worked at the American Museum of Natural History from 1954 to 1989, and was Herpetology Department Chairman from 1968 to 1980.
Zweifel was a resident of
Northvale, New Jersey
Northvale is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,640,
Bibliography
*Zweifel RG (1955). "Ecology, distribution and systematics of frogs of the ''Rana boylei'' group". ''Univ. California Pub. Zool.'' 54 (4): 207–292.
*Zweifel RG (1985). ''Australian Frogs of the Family Microhylidae''. .
*Zweifel RG (1998). ''Encyclopedia of Reptiles & Amphibians''. (with Harold George Cogger and David Kirshner) .
*Zweifel RG (2001). ''Encyclopedia of Animals: Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians''. (with Harold George Cogger, Joseph Forshaw, Edwin Gould, and George McKay) .
Legacy
In 1984, he was honored by the naming of " Zweifel's frog" (''Lithobates zweifeli'' ), found in Mexico, and in 1998 a microhylid frog ''
Cophixalus zweifeli
''Cophixalus zweifeli'' is a species of frog in the family Microhylidae. It is endemic to northern Queensland, Australia, and only known from the area of its type locality in the Cape Melville National Park. The species was named to honour Ameri ...