West Southwest Vertebrate Life in the Southern California Environs

About this book

West Southwest is about the vertebrates of southern California and the plant communities they live in: who they are, how they are related, where they live, and how they survive. It underscores the importance of natural history, and explores important topics not usually treated in field guides, such as evolution, reproduction, predation, and human impact.

Contents

Introduction

PART I
- The Land
- The Climate
- Exploration, Collections and the Museum Tradition
- The Three Pillars of Natural History

PART II
- Cenozoic Vegetation and Glaciation
- Modern Plant Associations
- Plant-Vertebrate Communities

PART III
- Amphibians
- Overview of the Amniotes
- Turtles
- Lepidosaurs - Squamates and Tuatara
- Snakes
- Birds
- Mammals
- The Ice Age Mammals

Customer Reviews

Biography

Gregory K. Pregill is a life-long Californian born in Pasadena, California. He received a Bachelor's degree from Baylor University (1968), a Master's degree from San Diego State University (1975), and a PhD from University of Kansas (1979). After finishing his schooling he was a Postdoctoral Fellow, United States National Museum Smithsonian Institution (1980-81) and became the Curator and Chairman of he Department of Herpetology at the San Diego Natural History Museum (1981-93). He left the Museum to become Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of San Diego (1993-2016) and is now retired. Among his many publications, he was the co-editor of a foundational reference - Phylogenetic Relationships of the Lizard Families (1988, Stanford University Press).