Animals have been studied for centuries. But what are the most important and relevant reference and information sources in the zoological sciences? This work is a comprehensive, thoroughly annotated directory filled with hundreds of esteemed resources published in the field of zoology, including indexes, abstracts, bibliographies, journals, biographies and histories, dictionaries and encyclopedias, textbooks, checklists and classification schemes, handbooks and field guides, associations, and Web sites. A complete revision of the award-winning Guide to the Zoological Literature: The Animal Kingdom (1994), this new title includes extensive, up-to-date coverage of invertebrates, arthropods, vertebrates, fishes, amphibians and reptiles, birds, and mammals. In addition, the work features a detailed introduction by the author, as well as thorough subject, title, and author indexes. Students and researchers can now quickly and easily pinpoint works in their field of study. The book is of equal importance to LIS students specializing in science or biology librarianship, as it provides a comprehensive, straight-forward overview of zoological information sources. An essential addition to the core reference collection of public and academic libraries!

New species of animal and plant are being discovered all the time. When this happens, the new species has to be given a scientific, Latin name in addition to any common, vernacular name. In either case the species may be named after a person, often the discoverer but sometimes an individual they wished to honour or perhaps were staying with at the time the discovery was made. Species names related to a person are ‘eponyms’. Many scientific names are allusive, esoteric and even humorous, so an eponym dictionary is a valuable resource for anyone, amateur or professional, who wants to decipher the meaning and glimpse the history of a species name. Sometimes a name refers not to a person but to a fictional character or mythological figure. The Forest Stubfoot Toad Atelopus farci is named after the FARC, a Colombian guerrilla army who found refuge in the toad’s habitat and thereby, it is claimed, protected it. Hoipollo's Bubble-nest Frog Pseudophilautus hoipolloi was named after the Greek for ‘the many’, but someone assumed the reference was to a Dr Hoipollo. Meanwhile, the man who has everything will never refuse an eponym: Sting's Treefrog Dendropsophus stingi is named after the rock musician, in honour of his ‘commitment and efforts to save the rainforest’. Following the success of their Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles, the authors have joined forces to give amphibians a similar treatment. They have tracked down 1,609 honoured individuals and composed for each a brief, pithy biography. In some cases these are a reminder of the courage of scientists whose dedicated research in remote locations exposed them to disease and even violent death. The eponym ensures that their memory will survive, aided by reference works such as this highly readable dictionary. Altogether 2,668 amphibians are listed.

Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species-the first catalogue of its kind-covers all living and fossil snakes described between 1758 and 2012, comprising 3,509 living and 274 extinct species allocated to 539 living and 112 extinct genera. Also included are 54 genera and 302 species that are dubious or invalid, resulting in reco