Welcome to Amphibians of the World: The Nature Lover's Life List. It is the first and most beautiful (unillustrated) listing in print of all 7539 kinds of these creatures. Perhaps the most striking feature of Amphibians of the World will be its NEW LEXICON OF PROPOSED ENGLISH NAMES. For the first time in any major worldwide group, a comprehensive and systematic approach to common naming has been applied. The reader is encouraged to give feedback for future editions. Amphibians of the World is the only book to the all the Earth's amphibians which marries the useful combination of ENGLISH COMMON NAMES (for subspecies, too), SCIENTIFIC NAMES and their AUTHORSHIP/DATE, RANGE DESCRIPTIONS (where they live) and other features for those creatures that have them, such as I. U. C. N. conservation codes, introduced ranges, medical notes, etc. Also provided are sections on How to Use this Book, amphibian relationships, timeclips, sources, and no less than three Indexes and/or Cross-references. The student of these animals will be well served. It is shocking that this most basic combination of amphibian data has taken so long to appear in print. Birds and mammals have been graced with their own full-data checklists for years. Short essays on the logic underlying the author's take on the art of English common naming for these animals, the hobby of Herptiling, conservation and field ethics and what scientific classification may be saying about humankind's place in nature round out this presentation. As this is the hobby-oriented, Nature Lover's, version of this book (not just a 'scientific checklist'), it has a 'box' (actually a lozenge) to MARK YOUR SIGHTINGS, places to write in WHEN and WHERE YOU SAW AN ANIMAL, all in in a user-friendly format. The Date-Seen entry can be applied in either of two places in the life list to make room for longer locality data, where needed. Though the approach taken gives the specialist all her or his core 'bells and whistles', the focus of this effort is the general public. Think of this work as a sort of 'People's Listing' of these fellow travelers on our planet. Nature Paperback 8 1/2 x 11" (white Paper) 573 pages (plus cover)
Author Biography:
About the Author Dale W. Mitchell was born in Riverside, California, USA, on the day the Korean War ended. Sadly, he has little memory of that most famous day in his life. Things have seldom been boring, though. His journey started with the finding of his first real adult field guide (A Field Guide to Western Birds, by Roger Tory Peterson) low down in a darkened corner of the little library at Central Junior High. He literally fell over on his backside! Today, the author has over 50 years of nature study, much of it learned alone in the days of Woodstock and the Summer of Love; when having a scientific orientation was not yet 'cool'. Indeed, he feels himself to be a production of the Peterson Field Guide System, as he learned about the natural world book-by-book over the years as each 'Peterson' was published. Woodstock, hippies and campus riots aside, he did wash up from that social maelstrom with an appreciation of The Moody Blues and Andrew Lloyd Weber/Tim Rice musicals. The author's heart-felt goal is to change the world in little ways. Not scary upheavals like religion, politics or etiquette, but more along the lines of replacing QWERTY typewriters, English spelling reform or base 12 counting. This somewhat iconoclastic book is one such salvo in his crusades and an excellent example of a small revolution. Now living with an insanely beautiful, nature-loving woman, whom he cherishes, the author is happy and knows he has been most deeply fortunate. He shares his life with two plotting, jealous, cats, a big friendly dog of destructive, otter-like tail, and a bulging personal library in Corvallis, Oregon; from which lair, should he not be engaged with the latest taxonomic joyrides, he is either re-reading Tolkien, chasing birds or plotting his newest iconoclastic sally out of the dark woods into sunlight.
