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Dr Mark D. Scherz

@markscherz.bsky.social

3.9K followers 1.3K following 620 posts

Curator of Herpetology & Associate Professor of Vertebrate Zoology at Natural History Museum of Denmark • ERC StG: GEMINI • Co-host of SquaMates Podcast and AnatomyInsights on Youtube • He/Him

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · Aug 12

Thrilled to announce version 2.0 of my poster featuring some of Madagascar's endemic frog species, to scale! This version features 176 species—40 more than version 1.1 (now retired)! Check it out!
🐸🧪
www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Som...

The poster features 176 species of frog from Madagascar, to scale. The biggest species are over 100 mm, the smallest are under 10 mm. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and colours. So many variations on the theme of frog!

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 4d

After ELEVEN YEARS of work, today I finally submitted my 205-page monograph on the diamond frogs of Madagascar, genus Rhombophryne, in which we are describing several new species. Feels so good to finally have it submitted. I can't wait to share the new species with you all! 🧪🐸🟤💎

A gloriously rotund brown frog flecked with burnt umber, resting on a dead leaf. This is the iconic Rhombophryne testudo. He is a thing of beauty.

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Reposted by Dr Mark D. Scherz

Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics @hologenomics.bsky.social · 5d

🔁Please share - we remind the SMBE community that the Call for Symposia for #SMBE2026 in Copenhagen is open.

We invite you to submit a symposium proposal to help shape the scientific content of our annual meeting.

🗓️Deadline: October 15th

More info: smbe2026.org/symposia
@official-smbe.bsky.social

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 6d

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

A sunrise over a football field full of geese.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 7d

So sorry to hear of Dame Jane Goodall's passing. What a life to celebrate, though! One of my most prised possessions is my copy of the Silmarillion, which she signed for me in 2014 when she came to deliver a talk in Munich. She said that she, too, admired the works of Tolkien. 🧝‍♀️💎💎💎

The opening page of the Silmarillion, signed at the bottom 'Jane Goodall'

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 7d

Yup, the museum tag is attached to it.

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 7d

Spent a little time in the last couple of day working with micro-CT scans of frogs again. This is the holotype of Rhombophryne coronata. I’m hoping to submit a manuscript including a plate of this specimen’s skeleton tomorrow! 🧪🐸🩻

Rhombophryne coronata rendered in 3D from a micro-CT scan. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 8d

@herphighlights.bsky.social heya, the call you played as Heterixalus boettgeri in Episode 235 is a microhylid, not a Heterixalus. It may be a Plethodontohyla or a Platypelis. Heterixalus have cricket-like stridulating calls.

Reposted by Dr Mark D. Scherz

N. Joris Fleck @njorisfleck.bsky.social · 19d

+++ Hissscord🐍 NEWS +++

Our new server is live! 🐍
A free space for young and experienced herpetologists to connect, collaborate, and get quick help.

💬 DM me here on Bluesky or elsewhere for an invite to the Discord channel!

Please feel free to share and repost!

#Herpetology #SEH2025 #Hissscord

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 13d

CAR NETS

Anders demonstrating a car net. It fits on top of a car. You get the picture.

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 13d

Newly minted Full Professor Anders P. Tøttrup is giving his inaugural lecture as Professor of #CitizenScience at the @nhmdk.bsky.social now. 🧪🦅🦩🦢

Anders in front of a crowd in a lecture hall, with his title slide in the background, which reads ‘Citizen Science as a Pathway to Innovative Research: from Schoolyards to Car Nets’

Anders wearing the same binoculars he would wear as a child when birdwatching

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 13d

Representatives of this morphotype on every continent! Sometimes multiple in close proximity, even!

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 14d

Turns out there are only so many things that it is easy to do with the anuran bauplan, but shifting among them happens with comparative ease. Generating something truly novel is comparatively rare and weird, but has happened quite a few times—and those instances are of course super interesting! 🐸🧪

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 14d

I think this is such an elegant demonstration of the predictability with contingency that is so often associated with convergent evolution. Frogs in general are an awesome demonstration of this, because we see assemblage-scale morphotype repetition across land masses. 🧪🐸

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 14d

Four generic frogs? No! These are members of four different FAMILIES from Europe, Borneo, Madagascar, and East Africa, convergently evolved on the generic brown frog morphotype! 🧪🐸

Ranidae: Rana temporaria, a generic brown frog from Denmark.

Dicroglossidae: Limnonectes paramacrodon, a generic brown frog from Borneo.

Mantellidae: Aglyptodactylus madagascariensis, a generic brown frog from Madagascar.

Pyxicephalidae: Amieitia tenuoplicata, a generic brown frog from Tanzania.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 16d

I. I read ‘trans-specific exit row’ and I was SO confused for a second. Like wow what airline company has one of those‽ how does that even work??¿? 🏳️‍⚧️✈️ 😅

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 17d

This is why we cannot trust colour in frogs to help much with species identification. It can be extremely variable, and features that might look diagnostic in a small set of specimens often are absent in some portion of the population. This poses challenges for taxonomy and field ID 🧪🐸

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 17d

Check out the remarkable variation in the Critically Endangered Anodonthyla theoi. It is restricted to a tiny area of littoral forest in SE Madagascar, and its habitat is extremely threatened by deforestation and fire. When the rains come, males emerge from tree holes and leaf axils to call. 🐸🧪

17 individuals of Anodonthyla theoi, tangling from greenish to copper to almost black. Some have stripes, some have big white spots. This is why we cannot trust colour in frogs to help much with species identification.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 18d

Yeah some photos were taken 😅

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 18d

Just another day at the office! Today, we needed to get a specimen out of the freezer to be prepped as a skeleton, so we pulled out this nice big Paleosuchus trigonatus. 🐊🧪

A frozen caiman curled up on a yellow metal and wood trolley on cobblestone and flagstones. It could almost be sleeping.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 19d

Holy hell, it's beautiful!

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 19d

Look at the fantastic variety of shape in these wonderful frogs I photographed in Gunung Mulu National Park on Borneo last year. Amazing how much frogs can do with so little. 🐸🧪

Polypedates colletti, a brown treefrog with a very pointy nose

Phrynoidis asper, a toad that is very Toad™

Occidozyga cf. laevis, a delightfully round and absolutely Built puddle frog

Limnonectes sp. Honestly I have no idea which species this is, I just know it's one that doesn't have a bos on the head. If it weren't from Borneo you might think it's a Rana or a Lithobates or something. It's brown and froggy with a dark tympanic field.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 19d

Having a diffuse research group means that I rarely get to spend any time with my group in 3D. It was a great delight therefore to be joined by @collinbos.bsky.social @alicepetzold.bsky.social @njorisfleck.bsky.social and @clarakeusgen.bsky.social together in Bonn for the #SEH2025! 🧪🐸🦎🐍🧬

Most of my group gathered in one place for the first time possibly ever. From left to right, former master's student Collin Bos, current postdoc Alice Petzold, me (Mark D. Scherz), former bachelor's student Joris Fleck, and current master's student and former bachelor's student Clara Keusgen.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 20d

Actual advertisement is here: utep.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdeta...

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 22d

Just a small taste of some of the work we have going on behind the scenes right now. It feels like everything is painfully slow at the moment, but there are some very nice things on the way!
These are skeletons of type specimens of Platypelis tetra, a little microhylid from NE Madagascar 🇲🇬 🧪🐸

Skeletons and skull closeup of some little frogs. A plate from an upcoming paper.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 22d

Yup. Accurate. Applies to frogs, too.

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