With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
Contrary to plans (you know how it is), I haven't had time to finish the phorusrhacid theme I started on Tuesday. Because it's important to keep it in mind, I feel we need a reminder about the fact that 2008 is Year of the Frog, and hats off to Carel for discussing this recently, and of course to Jeff Davis of Frog Matters for continuing to fight the fight...
Among the latest froggy news is the auctioning of the name of a new species of Mannophryne (go here): you have until July 1 2009 to get an aromobatid species named after you (aromobatids are a recently recognised clade of dendrobatoid nobleobatian agastorophrynian calamitophrynian hesticobatrachian cruciabatrachian leptodactyliform hyloids... you might know what hyloids are if you recall this article from the Tet Zoo anuran series, but for the other clade names you'll have to see Grant et al. 2006). Another new anuran, a new species of the bufonid taxon Osornophryne (sometimes called 'plump toads') from the northern Andes, was also up for auction earlier this year. Remember, if you haven't done so, to sign Amphibian Ark's online petition and to visit both Amphibian Ark and Frog Matters for the latest amphibian news. And if you need to know why it's Year of the Frog, there's an explanation here. It is not too late for us to make a difference. More on anurans still to come at Tet Zoo.... but some very dead phorusrhacids and other animals to come first, sorry...
The image at top depicts an American toad Anaxyrus americanus and is borrowed from Carel Brest van Kempen's Rigor Vitae.
Refs - -
Grant, T., Frost, D. R., Caldwell, J. P., Gagliardo, R., Haddad, C. F. B., Kok, P. J. R., Means, D. B., Noonan, B. P., Schargel, W. E. & Wheeler, W. C. 2006. Phylogenetic systematics of dart-poison frogs and their relatives (Amphibia: Athesphatanura: Dendrobatidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 299, 1-262.
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Comments
You have my full sympathy. Too much is too much. :-)
Posted by: David Marjanović | June 12, 2008 5:03 PM
Hmm (but.. not entirely sure what you're getting at.. too many new names?). Nobleobatia - the 'Noble walker' clade that includes hylodids and dendrobatoids (it isn't given a phylogenetic definition) - is named for G. K. Noble. I do actually like some of the new names that the Frost AMNH team are coming up with, even though it seems OTT to assume that all the nodes they discover are strong enough to get a new name. Examples: the athesphatanurans are the 'marvelous frogs', the hesticobatrachians are the 'agreeable frogs', and the calamitophrynians are the 'toads having the nature of misfortune'. I was hoping that Chthonobatrachia was named after something to do with H. P. Lovecraft, but nope.
Dammit, I just realised I've started another big linguistics-themed round of comments. Please no....
PS - did I see that Nick Pharris got his phd? Congrats if so Nick!
Posted by: Darren Naish | June 12, 2008 5:28 PM
"recently recognised clade of dendrobatoid nobleobatian agastorophrynian calamitophrynian hesticobatrachian cruciabatrachian leptodactyliform hyloids"
Ow...my....thingy....in....heady
Posted by: neil | June 12, 2008 5:57 PM
Um, well, yes, in August of 2006, actually, but thanks!
Posted by: Dr. Nick | June 12, 2008 9:47 PM
Oh well, better late than never (the congrats that is, not getting the Ph.D.).
Posted by: Darren Naish | June 13, 2008 4:46 AM
Oh. Yes, definitely way too many new names at once -- I didn't remember that one. I need to check Frost et al. 2006 again... <sigh> I agree that many of the names are nice, though.
Posted by: David Marjanović | June 13, 2008 6:46 AM
They are a truly a precious commodity. Do you know how much I pay the gram for my toad?! - http://scienceblogs.com/zooillogix/2008/06/lady_the_toad_sucking_cockersp.php
Posted by: Andrew | June 13, 2008 6:28 PM
As the many errors in my last comment attest to, my toad is good sh!t!
Posted by: Andrew | June 13, 2008 6:31 PM