User:Faendalimas

Real Name: Scott Thomson

 * Skype: Faendalimas
 * IRC Nick: faendalimas (see me on )

I have spent the last 20 odd years working as a taxonomist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Canberra where I specialised in the systematics and nomenclature of Australasian Turtles. I have described 5 species of turtle, 3 living and 2 fossil, as well as one genus. I have recently published a complete synonymy of the Australasian Chelidae. Most of my editing is concerned with Reptiles and Amphibians, specifically Turtles. So I guess I shall explain a little about this. My career in Zoology started when I was employed as shop keeper looking after tropical and marine fish and invertebrates. I did this whilst I began my B.Sc. in Zoology. Afterwards I worked at Notre Dame Zoo and then Western Plains Zoo in Australia. During my involvement with the Zoo Industry I was involved in the Australian Species Management Plan (ASMP) Reptile and Amphibian TAG. Here I wrote the Management Plan for the Alligator Snapping Turtle and assisted with the management of the Galapagos Tortoises. This led to my becoming the joint International Species Coordinator for the Galapagos Tortoise along with a fellow from a USA Zoo. I then was taken on to finish my degree at the University of Canberra. Here I worked in the Applied Ecology Institute as a taxonomist from 1994 till 2008. I was fortunate whilst here to describe 7 species of turtles (5 living - Chelodina burrungandjii, Chelodina canni, Elseya albagula, Elseya rhodini, Elseya flaviventralis and 2 fossil - Elseya nadibajagu and Rheodytes devisi). I also described one new genus (Myuchelys) and a subgenus (Elseya (Hanwarachelys)) and developed keys to species of the Chelidae and a full synonomy. This has led to my advisory role with the IUCN and my membership of the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group of the Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. I take a heavy interest in nomenclatural issues and have published a number of papers in the Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, the journal of the ICZN. From 2009 to 2014 I was living in northern USA and as of February, 2014 am now in Brazil, I am attached to the Museu de Zoologia in Sao Paulo where I am working on the living and fossil Chelid and Pelomedusid turtles of South America, Africa and Australasia. I am also now working hard on nomenclatural issues in Herpetology. I now spend about 3 months of each year in Florida where I am Curator of the Chelonian Research Institute, managing the largest and most comprehensive collection of turtles in the world.

Personal Interests
Beta testing of software, web site development, script writing, computer programming, mod making, computer games, martial arts and of course herpetology.

Interests on Wikiversity
I am a current member of the editorial Board for the Wikijournal of Science. I am also interested in administrative policy development and helping this wiki any way I can.

Lectures Created

 * What is in a Name: Nomenclature and Taxonomy in Turtles: - in depth look at the relationship of taxonomy and nomenclature and how they are utilized by the science of Conservation Biology.
 * Turtle: Draft zoological contribution on turtles suitable for teaching material.

Link to My Websites
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 * Reptile Names (Blog)
 * Carettochelys.com