Andreas Hertz

Andreas Hertz (born September 13, 1979 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German herpetologist . His main research interests are the neotropical reptiles and amphibians .

Life

After graduating from high school and doing community service, Hertz worked for two months as an intern on a snake farm in Costa Rica . From 2002 he studied biology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main , where he presented his diploma thesis in 2007 with the title Taxonomy and zoogeography of the herpetofauna around Cerro Platillón, Venezuela . For this he undertook an expedition with Sebastian Lotzkat in January 2006 on the Río San Juan in Nicaragua and another in February 2006 to the regions of the Cerro Platillón and the Nirgua Massif in Venezuela . In October of the same year Hertz and Sebastian Lotzkat succeeded in rediscovering the frog species Agalychnis medinae on Cerro Zapatero in Venezuela , which has not been seen since 1974. In 2007 he became an employee at the Senckenberg Research Institute . Between May and August 2008, Hertz and Lotzkat carried out their first field studies in the Central Cordillera in Panama for their dissertation projects . Two further research trips to Panama followed in 2009. The last study phase took place between May and August 2010. During these four excursions to Panama, a collection of around 80 amphibian and 114 reptile species was assembled, including several new discoveries. In February 2015 Hertz was led by Bruno Streit and Gunther Köhler with the thesis Integrative taxonomy and conservation status of Amphibians in Western Panama with on emphasis on the Highlands of the Cordillera Central in the Department of Biological Sciences of Doctor of Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main doing his doctorate. During his postdoctoral phase , he has been a research fellow and laboratory technician at the Biological Department of the University of Massachusetts Boston since November 2015 . From January to February 2018 he worked at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute .

Hertz deals with almost all aspects of amphibian biology as well as the taxonomy and systematics of neotropical amphibians and reptiles using various methods, including morphology , DNA barcoding and bioacoustics . Further research projects focus on the amphibian microbiome , secondary metabolites , toxinology , amphibian development and immunology , amphibian disease ecology and amphibian protection in Panama.

Hertz described, often in collaboration with Sebastian Lotzkat, numerous new amphibian and reptile species, most of which come from Panama.

Hertz is a member of the amphibian research group of the IUCN / Species Survival Commission and the German Society for Herpetology and Terrarium Science .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Hertz, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German herpetologist
DATE OF BIRTH	September 13, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH	Frankfurt am Main