Dr Mark D. Scherz
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markscherz.bsky.social
Dr Mark D. Scherz
@markscherz.bsky.social
4K followers 1.3K following 690 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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markscherz.bsky.social
Yes indeed! A few km away from Ranomafana now, and it’s just started to rain
Rainy Malagasy landscape through the windshield of a car with the wipers going.
February 12, 2026 at 3:29 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
We are on the road now headed south, making our way towards Ranomafana. We expect the drive to take around 14 hours on rough roads, but we have good company and fantastic weather, despite the cyclone that passed just yesterday. 🇲🇬
A Malagasy landscape, with pines in shadow in the foreground and a hill with exposed rock in the distance
February 12, 2026 at 3:36 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
I have a new favourite piece of graffiti. Look at this lovely piece of work in the Ankatso neighbourhood of Antananarivo!
A panther chameleon in grey, painted over newspaper? on a corner wall bedecked with barbed wire in Antananarivo. Passing through the chameleon is a yellow and red stripe that’s continuous on the walls before and behind the chameleon. In front and below it sits a small trolly selling Soya Yoghurt with vitamins and calcium in French and Malagasy.
February 10, 2026 at 8:07 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
Setting off for seven weeks of Madagascar fieldwork through 20-30 cm of snow is a somewhat surreal experience. Excited to undertake this work as part of my ERC project GEMINI, aiming to sample several miniaturised species to produce some high-quality genomes!
Snowy Denmark with yours truly in the centre wearing an orange winter jacket, a red scarf, a green hat, a backpack, and a few other small bags. Not exactly appropriate clothing for the 28°C that await me in Antananarivo.
February 7, 2026 at 11:19 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
Meanwhile in Denmark
Snow. So much snow. It’s blizzarding in Denmark. No frogs here.
February 6, 2026 at 11:28 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
Copenhagen is in the midst of a blizzard right now, but in three days I will be landing in Antananarivo, where the daytime temperature is 28°C. Hard to conceptualise from where I’m standing. But I’m excited to return to Madagascar on what promises to be a thrilling expedition!
My hiking boots covered in snow, with snow covering the ground. These same boots will see the rainforest and littoral forests of Madagascar for the next two months.
February 5, 2026 at 10:46 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
The struggle is real!
A jar of lizard with what once was a rubber seal but is now a failure and a disappointment.
February 3, 2026 at 8:20 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
New publication from my lab, led by @njorisfleck.bsky.social! 🧪 We explore the diversity and origins of a genus of tiny frogs 🐸 on an isolated mountain in north Madagascar. A cool case study of both in-situ diversification and repeated colonisation!
vertebrate-zoology.arphahub.com/article/1664...
We explored the bioacoustic differentiation of these frogs, and found clear differences among basically all species, especially those co-occurring at the same elevation. This figure shows cut-outs of a the little whistling calls each frog species makes, and a plot of call duration against dominant frequency for all individual calls recorded, coloured by species. There is an interesting pattern of both size diversity and elevational distribution among the Stumpffia of Montagne d'Ambre in the north of Madagascar. This plate shows dorsal, ventral, and lateral photos of all species, as well as their body size ranges, and then also a plot of elevational distributions of each species, showing clear stratification. All of the frogs are pretty round and shows some indication of miniaturisation. Most are resplendent in a variety of brown shades above and below, but some, like Stumpffia madagascariensis, have stark colour contrasts or lines, and one, S. megsoni, has orange on the belly. A photo into the forest at moderately high elevation on Montagne d'Ambre. There is a rather open understory, with tree ferns and low bamboo(?), and quite thin tree trunks. It is a sea of greens and browns. The tiny Stumpffia madagascariensis upon a bright green leaf in the leaflitter. This species is one of the smallest frogs in Madagascar, and indeed the world. This individual has a thin light stripe along the back, a pale brown dorsum, and stark black border along the flank. You can just make out the teensy tiny toesies, and it is, frankly, adorable.
January 21, 2026 at 10:42 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
At long last I finally managed to catch the northern lights! From home, no less! My first unsuccessful attempts scuppered by cloud were some 15 years ago, and I have had few chances to see them since.
A pink glow over a green glow in a light-polluted night sky over a residential area, with a playground and a tree in the middle foreground. The composition is shite and the aurora itself is pathetically pale, but it’s there!
January 19, 2026 at 10:57 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
@sarahmackattack.bsky.social I find the stats of iNat observations very useful indeed when trying to figure out how to find a specific creature
December 26, 2025 at 10:35 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
So warm again in Denmark right now that the newts are back out and hunting. Last snacks before winter I guess. 🦎🧪
My hand next to a difficult to discern smooth newt on the wet pavement, with a tiny green caterpillar in its mouth.
December 10, 2025 at 8:31 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
Who’s up for a game of Temnospondyl or Ghost?
An ikea welcome mat that looks either like a ghost with its hands up, or a temnospondyl (or Calyptocephalella) from above. If you had a screen reader read either of those two words, please tell me how it went.
December 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
Today we described three new toad species that give birth to fully formed toadlets, from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania! 🇹🇿🧪🐸

vertebrate-zoology.arphahub.com/article/1670...
A fine black toad with bright white fingers, toes, and lips, and brown pustular blobs along its legs, resting on a dark green leaf. A black and white toad on a green fern frond. The head and limbs are grey, and the body black. A toad looking at the camera over a brown leaf, its black body splotched with yellow and white. It is very Halloween-core. A black toad with huge yellow glands on its legs, head, arms, and parts of the back. Jack Skellington himself could hardly have painted a more Halloween-flavoured toad.
November 6, 2025 at 8:38 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
October 3, 2025 at 9:52 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
Oh, what a beautiful morning!
A sunrise over a football field full of geese.
October 2, 2025 at 7:30 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
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'
October 1, 2025 at 7:58 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
September 30, 2025 at 9:42 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
CAR NETS
Anders demonstrating a car net. It fits on top of a car. You get the picture.
September 25, 2025 at 12:02 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
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
September 25, 2025 at 11:15 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
September 23, 2025 at 9:40 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
September 21, 2025 at 10:41 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
September 19, 2025 at 10:32 PM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
September 19, 2025 at 7:45 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
September 19, 2025 at 7:35 AM
markscherz.bsky.social
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.
September 16, 2025 at 3:26 PM