Robert C. Stebbins

Robert Cyril Stebbins (born March 31, 1915 in Chico , California , † September 23, 2013 in Eugene , Oregon ) was an American herpetologist .

Life

Stebbins studied zoology at the University of California, Los Angeles ( Bacher of Arts 1940, Master of Arts 1942, Ph.D. 1943). In 1945 he became professor of zoology at the University of California, Berkeley and curator of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology ; he held both positions until his death.

He came out especially with work on the herpetofauna of western North America; his identification book, A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians , first published in 1966 and provided with his own illustrations, is still considered a standard work and is still in print today. At the beginning of his career he was particularly interested in the salamander species Ensatina eschscholtzii and the speciation process that can be observed in the many different subspecies of this salamander ; He also researched the function and development of the vertex eye .

Since the 1970s he has been increasingly committed to environmental protection and, through his strong influence on the two California Senators in the US Senate, made a decisive contribution to the establishment of the Mojave National Preserve in 1994.

Awards

• 1978: Berkeley Citation

Works (selection)

• Speciation in Salamanders of the Plethodontid Genus Ensatina (1949)
• Amphibians and Reptiles of Western North America (1951)
• Subspecific Differentiation in the Olympic Salamander Rhyacotriton olympicus (1951)
• Reptiles and Amphibians of the San Francisco Bay Region (1959)
• Field Studies of Amphibians in Colombia, South America (1959, with John Roscoe Hendrickson)
• A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians (1966)
• Amphibians and Reptiies of California (1972)
• A Natural History of Amphibians (1997, with Nathan W. Cohen)
• Connecting with Nature: A Naturalist's Perspective (2009)

literature

• Roger Luckenbach: Robert Stebbins: A Life of Devotion to Detail . In: Pacific Discovery 38: 2, 1985. pp. 34-43.
• Daniel G. Mulcahy and Meredith J. Mahoney: Historical Perspectives: Robert Cyril Stebbins . In: Copeia 4: 3, 2006. pp. 563-572.

Web links

• Robert Sanders: Berkeley reptile and amphibian expert Robert Stebbins dies at 98 , obituary on the University of California, Berkeley website, September 27, 2013.