Raymond Bridgman Cowles (pronounced "coals"; 1896–1975) was a

herpetologist Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

and professor at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. Born in the British

Colony of Natal The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies t ...

(in what is now

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

, South Africa) to American missionary parents, he emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. He attended

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

as an undergrad and earned his PhD at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

under

Albert Hazen Wright Albert Hazen Wright (August 15, 1879 – July 5, 1970) was an American herpetologist and professor at Cornell University. He was also an honorary member of the International Ornithological Congress. He did a great deal of study of the Okefenokee ...

. He is known for his research on desert ecology and reptile

thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

, as well as his popular books on environmental conservation. Cowles died of a heart attack in 1975 at the age of 79. An obituary called him one of America's first ecologists and conservationists. Cowles is commemorated in the scientific names of three reptiles: the White Sands prairie lizard (''Sceloporus cowlesi)'', the Angolan coral snake (''Aspidelaps lubricus cowlesi)'', ("Cowles", pp. 60-61). and the

Yuman Desert fringe-toed lizard The Yuman Desert fringe-toed lizard (''Uma cowlesi'') is a species of phrynosomatid lizard endemic to northwestern Mexico, although a hybrid population of it and ''Uma notata'' ranges north to southwestern Arizona in the United States. Taxonom ...

(''Uma cowlesi)''. Heifetz W (1941). "A Review of the Lizards of the Genus ''Uma'' ". ''Copeia'' 1941 (2): 99–111.

Books

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References

External links

Guide to the Raymond B. Cowles Papers
UC Santa Barbara, at

Online Archive of California In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowles, Raymond B. 1896 births 1975 deaths American herpetologists American ecologists People from Natal Cornell University alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Pomona College alumni 20th-century American zoologists Emigrants from the Colony of Natal South African emigrants to the United States