About the podcast
SquaMates is a very serious herpetological podcast where we talk about the most recent big developments in herpetology, focussing especially on groundbreaking studies, or those that tie together many small pieces to bring new insights. We also talk about evolution, conservation, and herpetoculture.
The podcast is divided into sections. Currently, these are:
Missedsnakes
Wherein we talk about places we ‘eft’ up in the previous episodes and provide follow-up on the research we talked about.
Works in Froggress
Wherein we talk about what we’ve been working on recently
Breaking Newts
Wherein we discuss the biggest and most important herpetological stories of the last month
#HERpers
Wherein we discuss the works and contributions of a particular female herpetologist each episode
Discussion
Wherein we talk in more detail about a particular topic.
Questions from Lizardners
Where we answer questions from YOU, the listeners! Have a question? Send it our way!
About the hosts
Gabriel Ugueto
Gabriel is a scientific illustrator, paleoartist and herpetologist. He does reconstructions and illustrations of both extinct and extant animals. He specializes in illustrations of tetrapods. Gabriel studied graphic design and illustration but grew up loving reptiles and amphibians, and for several years worked on the systematics and taxonomy of the South American herpetofauna as an independent researcher. He has authored numerous papers, including the description of several new species of neotropical lizards and various taxonomic revisions.
Currently, Gabriel works solely as a freelance scientific illustrator and paleoartist. His work has appeared in books, museums, journals, magazines, and TV documentaries. Recently, he was responsible for creating the concept art used to render the CGI animation that appeared in the BBC Two documentary “The Real T. rex with Chris Packham”. He has also done several illustrations for the book series “So You Think You Know About… Dinosaurs?” by evolutionary biologist and broadcaster Ben Garrod. Presently, Gabriel is preparing a book showcasing numerous examples of his paleoart, entitled “Journey To The Mesozoic vol. I: Tetrapods Of The Triassic And Jurassic”, intended to be published in 2019. Gabriel strives to make his reconstructions of extinct species appear as animals that could be alive today, not as monsters from a sci-fi movie. Gabriel tweets @Serpenillus.
Ethan Kocak
Ethan is a cartoonist, illustrator and herpetoculturist. His work has been featured on Scientific American’s website, and most recently the book he illustrated, Does It Fart? was an international bestseller and made the New York Times bestsellers list. He also draws the free webcomics BlackMudpuppy.com and PunchEveryone.com. While his career is drawing cartoons, his hobby has been keeping and breeding reptiles and amphibians for the last 28 years, especially salamanders and geckos. Currently, his basement is home to more herps than the local zoo (not a joke) and one lungfish named Trevor. Ethan tweets @Blackmudpuppy.
Mark D. Scherz
Mark is an Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Zoology and Curator of Herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. He studies mostly the systematics and taxonomy of the herpetofauna of Madagascar, as well as their evolutionary history. Mark has co-authored quite a few papers and has described over 80 new species of frogs and lizards. Mark blogs at www.markscherz.com and tweets @MarkScherz.
Hiral Naik
Hiral Naik is a herpetologist and conservationist with a specific focus on snake ecology. Hiral completed her masters on the evolution of diet in lamprophiid snakes and she is now a PhD student working on the behavioural ecology of venomous snakes in South Africa in relation to snakebite. Hiral is also the Africa Program Manager at Save The Snakes and is the co-leader of Snake Education and Community Awareness Program (SECAP), an initiative dedicated to snake education and conservation. You can learn more about Hiral on here website. Hiral tweets at @HiralNaik25.