蛇类分类学的混乱世界

Fringe figures in herpetology advance unlikely (and unchecked) claims in an offbeat taxonomical history Christopher Kemp Every species name tells a story: history, exploration, disease, con- flict, jungle rot—often disaster, sometimes death. With Snake Men, author Zach St. George ventures into the tangled world of snake taxonomy and some of the offbeat characters who populate it. Broadly, the book is about the tension between the slow, scholarly pur- suit of taxonomy, performed in institutions and museum archives, and the democratic, less policed version of species description be- ing conducted in basements by upstarts and unaffiliated amateur scientists. Amateur taxonomists such as Raymond Hoser, shown here retrieving a tiger snake from a backyard, often vex professional scientists. …