WALTER E. SCHARGEL
Department of Biology
The University of Texas at Arlington
Arlington, TX 76019
Office: LS B15
email: wschargel@yahoo.com
Research interests:
I am grad student at the University of Texas at Arlington working towards a PhD degree in Quantitative Biology. Most of my past research involves systematic and morphological studies of several groups of South American amphibians and reptiles. For the last few years I have been working in collaboration with Juan E. García-Pérez (BioCentro, Guanare) and more recently Gilson Rivas (La Salle Museum, Caracas) on surveys of the poorly known amphibians and reptiles of Venezuela. Our findings include new species to science, many of which still await publication.
I completed my M.S. work under Dr. Jonathan Campbell (link, UTA collection link). My master’s thesis project was a taxonomic review of some species of the very diverse snakes of the genus Atractus. The results of this study still await publication and include description of several new species to science as well as other taxonomic changes.
For my PhD degree I now work with Dr. Jeremy Marshall (link). I have lately become interested in the evolution of traits that are important as signals for territorial behavior, mate choice, and species recognition. I am also interested in hybrid zones and evolution of reproductive isolation.
For my dissertation prohject I am working on phylogenetic relationships and evolution of visuals signal in the diurnal geckoes of the genus Gonatodes.
Past and current projects:
Taxonomy of the genus Atractus (link) Systematics of Polychrus marmoratus (link)
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Systematics of gymnophthalmids (link) New species of Mabuya (link)
New species of Bolitoglossa (link) Gonatodes research (link):
Publications:
1. Marrero C., J. E. García-Pérez, J. Farrera, M. Mendoza, N. Stambury, R. Baptista, y W. Schargel. 1996. Invertebrados asociados a las Bromelias en el Parque Nacional General Cruz Carrillo (Guaramacal, Edo. Trujillo, Venezuela). Biollania 12:143-144. 1996.
2. Schargel W. E. y J. E. García-Pérez. 2002. A new species and a new record of Atractus (Serpentes: Colubridae) from the Andes of Venezuela. Journal of Herpetology 36(3): 398-402. 2002
3. Schargel W. E., J. E. García-Pérez, y E. N. Smith. 2002. A New species of Bolitoglossa (Caudata: Plethodontidae) from the Cordillera de Mérida, Venezuela. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 115(3):225-233. 2002
4. Doan, T. M., and W. E. Schargel. 2003. Bridging the gap in Proctoporus distribution: a new species (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) from the Andes of Venezuela. Herpetologica 59(1):68-75.
5. Schargel, W. E. and G. Rivas. 2003. Two new country records of salamanders of the genus Bolitoglossa (Caudata: Plethodontidae) for Colombia and Venezuela. Herpetozoa 16(1/2):94-96
6. Schargel, W. E. and T. C. Castoe. 2003. The hemipenes of some fossorial snakes of the genus Atractus (Colubridae) with comments on variation in the genus. Journal of Herpetology 37(4):718–721.
7. Barrio, C. B. and W. E. Schargel. 2003. Geographic Distribution. Chiasmocleis hudsoni. Herpetological Review 34:380.
8. Miralles, A., G. Rivas, and W. E. Schargel. 2005. A new species of Mabuya (Scincidae) from the Venezuelan Andes. Zootaxa 895:1-11.
9. Schargel, W. E., G. Rivas, and C. W. Myers. 2005. An enigmatic new snake from cloud forest of the Peninsula de Paria, Venezuela (Colubridae: Genus Taeniophallus?). American Museum Novitates 3484:1-22.
10. Rivas, G., W. E. Schargel, and J. M. Meik. 2005. A new species of Riama (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae), endemic to the Peninsula de Paria, Venezuela. Herpetologica 61(4):461-468.
11. Grant, T., D. R. Frost, A. Acosta, J. P. Caldwell, R. Gagliardo, C. F. B. Haddad, R. Ibañez, P. Kock, B. Means, B. P. Noonan, W. E. Schargel, and W. Wheeler. 2006. Phylogenetic systematics of Dart-Poison Frogs (Amphibia: Athesphatanura: Dendrobatidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 299:1-262.
12. Myers, C. W. and W. E. Schargel. 2006. Morphological extremes---Two new species of Atractus from Northwestern South America (Colubridae: Dipsadinae). American Museum Novitates. 3532:1-13.
In prep: A few things, but like we say in "mi pueblo": "guerra avisada no mata soldados" or "Perro que ladra no muerde"
Links to other people/labs doing research on tropical herps:
Pookie Noonan's page about Guiana shield herpetology (Noonan)
Shreyas Krishnan, Herpetology of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Shreyas)
Neotropical Lizard Ecology, Dr. Laurie Vitt (Vitt)
Neotropical Frog Ecology, Dr. Janalee P. Caldwell (Caldwell)