HERPETOLOGY SECTION

The Danish reptiles and amphibians are well represented in the collections, and not least thanks to a single collector (R. Skovgaard), the Museum has representative collections from the rest of Europe as well.

The Museum possesses fine exotic collections from the earlier colonies of Denmark, e.g., from the earlier Danish West Indies. This material was treated by Reinhardt & Lütken (1862).

From the earlier settlements on the Coast of Guinea, the Museum possesses a small, but very fine collection of snakes, many of which formed the basis for the description of new species (Reinhardt, 1843), among others the spitting cobra, Naja nigricollis. Reinhardt´s paper has been translated in English (Rasmussen & Hughes, 1997).

Reinhardt increased the collections personally by undertaking three collecting trips to Brazil. The material was later treated by Reinhardt & Lütken (1861).

Most of the very-representative collections of reptiles and amphibians can be traced back to a single expedition or a single person.

Thus, the Noona Dan Expedition (1961-1962) brought home a fine collection of terrestrial amphibians and reptiles from the Philippines and Melanesia and marine sea snakes from the Pacific.

Since 1985, Arne Redsted Rasmussen has personally more than doubled the number of sea snakes in the collections.

The Museum has fine collections of anuran amphibians, most of which have been collected by Arne Schiøtz in connection with his studies on tree frogs from West Africa (1967). Later Arne Schiøtz extended his studies (1985) to include the East African tree frogs as well.

Since 1970, the Museum has made extensive collection tours to East Africa. In consequence, the section has abundant collections (especially snakes) from this area.

Note that for the time being assistant curators Mogens Andersen and Abdi Hedayat will handle questions concerning access to the collections of Amphibia and Reptilia.