On the Survey of the Herpetofauna

I propose that fourth-year distance-learning students enrolled in the special course "Batrachology and Herpetology" work with sources and create pages dedicated to a survey of our country's herpetofauna. The idea is for students to collaboratively create a list and brief descriptions of all reptile species in Ukraine's fauna, using literature and online databases. The pages on which these lists are to be placed are: Batrachofauna of Ukraine and Herpetofauna of Ukraine. The main sources I propose to use are as follows: 1. online databases dedicated to the diversity of amphibians (Amphibian Species List) and reptiles (Higher Taxa in Extant Reptiles); 2. reference books available in the Batrachos library: — Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia: Volume 6. Amphibians and Volume 7. Reptiles; — the field practicum guide; — the corresponding volume of the multi-volume series "Life of Animals"; — three surveys dedicated to the fauna of Ukraine (Tarashchuk, 1959); the USSR (Bannikov et al., 1977) and Russia (Ananyeva et al., 1998); 3. site materials (in particular, sections dedicated to amphibians and reptiles); 4. other sources (I highly recommend GoogleScholar for finding information suitable for academic purposes). When working with rather old sources, note that views on the systematics of the animals in question and their taxonomic status have changed over time. The specifics of working on the site are as follows. If you are registered as wiki users, you have logged into the site (entered your login and password, and they have been recognized by the system), and you are visiting a wiki page, you will see two tabs at the top of the window: "View" and "Edit". You can enter editing mode. Currently (for reasons unclear to me, which I will ask the programmer who maintains the site to fix), the editing window does not load fully upon entry. You need to click on the blue link "switch to plain text editor", and after it becomes "switch to editor", click on it again. The text editor window with toolbar buttons at the top will load. Select the "Full HTML" mode in the dropdown below — that offers the richest set of features. Discussion of possible problems can be conducted in the comments below this page... How to format the result? I think it makes sense to implement the following structure on both pages I propose to create. As you understand, the names are illustrative. Just as a reminder, the most general rules for using zoological nomenclature are set out in this lecture. Formatting can be chosen from the available set of styles in "Full HTML" mode (button in the lower right corner of the button block above the text window). Order One — Ordo Unum (style — Heading 2) Family Two — Familia Duo (formatting — "Heading 3") Name epithet — Nomen epitheton Auctore, Anno for species names formatting — "Heading 4") The species description should include an indication of its range, characteristic features that allow it to be distinguished from other species, and if necessary — a discussion of systematics, study, conservation issues, etc. Formatting — "Normal". Of course, references or hyperlinks to the sources of information used are needed.