274 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 64, No. 8 
and there is a contiguous record-free area in eastern Kufrah and adjacent districts that is the size of 
Germany (approximately 350,000 km 2 ). Although collections in these vast unsampled areas would 
be desirable, the highest priorities for future intensive sampling are the less well sampled oases, 
which are under tremendous pressure from human encroachment (White et al. 2004) and the areas 
of higher elevation, such as the Libyan Tibesti, which has not been herpetologically sampled since 
the 1930s, and the Tadrart Akakus, which, by virtue of its proximity to the Tassili n’Ajjer, may 
share with it additional taxa that have yet to be collected in Libya. 
Acknowledgments 
This atlas was made possible by the generosity of curators and collection managers who made 
their data available to us. In particular, we would like to thank Stefano Scalli and Giorgio Chiozzi 
(Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milana), Alan Resetar (Field Museum of Natural History), 
Patrick Campbell and Jeff Streicher (The Natural History Museum, London), Frank Tillack, Rain¬ 
er Gunther, and Mark-Oliver Rodel (Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin), Frank Glaw and Michael 
Franzen (Zoologisches Staatssammlung Miinchen), Jim Hanken, Jonathan Losos, Jose Rosado, Joe 
Martinez, and Linda Ford (MCZ), Heinz Grillitsch and Silke Schweiger (Naturhistorisches Muse¬ 
um Wien), Uwe Fritz, Raffael Ernrst and Markus Auer (Senckenberg Collections, Dresden), Jens 
Vindum, Lauren Scheinberg, and Robert C. Drewes (CAS), Wolfgang Bohme (Zoologisches 
Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig), Andreas Schmitz (Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Ville de 
Geneve), and Ned Gilmore (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University), whose collections 
were visited by one or more of the authors in the course of the preparation of the atlas. In addition, 
Petros Lymberakis (Natural History Museum of Crete), Giuliano Doria (Museo Civico di Storia 
Naturale “Giacomo Doria”), Gunther Kohler and Linder Acker (Forschungsinstitut und Naturmu- 
seum Senckenberg), Urs Wiiest (Naturhistorisches Museum Basel), Goran Nilson (Goteborgs 
Naturhistorisk Museum) and Daniel Frynta (Charles University, Prague) provided data from their 
respective collections. Philippe Geniez made available data from his personal collection and 
Roberto Sindaco provided not only his own observational records, but also the collected data on 
Libyan reptiles from Italian museums. We are indebted to Adel Ibrahim, Petros Lymberakis, and 
Roberto Sindaco for providing the images of live animals used in this paper. Scott Travers and Ben 
Karin prepared interim versions of the distribution maps. Monica Bauer assisted with editing. The 
manuscript benefited from the critical reviews of Steven C. Anderson, Ulrich Joger, and Sherif 
Baha El Din as well as the editorial oversight of Alan E. Leviton. As noted in the Introduction, this 
atlas is a product of a joint research project between the senior author and David C. Blackburn (for¬ 
merly of the California Academy of Sciences and now of the Florida Museum of Natural History), 
to whom we are grateful for his collaboration and friendship. 
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through grants DEB 1019443 
and 1555968 to Aaron M. Bauer and DEB 1019444, 1202609 and 1560667 to David Blackburn, 
and by the Gerald M. Lemole, M.D. Endowed Chair Funds through Villanova University. 
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Margarita Metallinou, a cherished friend and col¬ 
league who contributed much to the knowledge of the North African fauna. 
