Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Bogert, Charles Mitchill (United States 1908-1992)
herpetology

photo courtesy of Copeia

Charles M. Bogert was a major figure in twentieth century herpetology, both as an administrator at the American Museum of Natural History (where he was curator of herpetology for over twenty-five years), and as a researcher. Bogert traveled widely in search of specimens and experimental settings (for example, to Sri Lanka, Central America, the American West, Florida, and the Bahamas), but he felt especially at home in Mexico, where in addition to conducting faunal surveys he made recordings of indigenous folk music that were later commercially released. His most important biological research was probably on the nature of thermoregulation in desert reptiles, but he also carried out significant work on snake dentition, the evolution and behavior of reptiles and amphibians, and the morphology, systematics, and natural history of helodermatid lizards (the gila monster and its cousin, the beaded lizard) and patch-nosed snakes.

--born in Mesa, Colorado, on 4 June 1908.
--1934: A.B., University of California, Los Angeles
--1936: A.M., University of California, Los Angeles
--1936-1940: assistant curator, Dept. of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History
--1938, 1939, 1946: collecting expeditions to Mexico
--1940-1941: associate curator, Dept. of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History
--1943-1968: curator, Dept. of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History
--1944: publishes "A Preliminary Study of the Thermal Requirements of Desert Reptiles" in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, with R. B. Cowles
--1945: made chairman of the Dept. of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History
--1946: made first president of the Herpetologists' League
--1949: publishes "Thermoregulation in Reptiles, a Factor in Evolution" in Evolution
--1952-1954: president, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
--1955: receives Guggenheim fellowship
--1956: publishes "The Gila Monster and Its Allies" in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, with Rafael Martín del Campo
--1956: vice-president, Society for the Study of Evolution
--1956-1957: Dean of the Council of Scientific Staff, American Museum of Natural History
--1958: releases "Sounds of North American Frogs" on Folkways Records
--1958, 1960: releases ethnological/folk recordings of Mexican folk music on Folkways Records, with M. R. Bogert
--1960s: further herpetological investigations in Mexico
--1966: honorary LL.D., UCLA
--dies at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 10 April 1992.

--Herpetologica, Vol. 49(1) (1993): 133-146.
--Copeia, (1) (1993): 264-266.