It has been a long time since the last update to the Director's Message, but not because nothing has been happening. Just after the update of June 2003 a team of three Museum members traveled to Australia for the third VMNH field study on Fitzroy Island. After a three-month stay and a considerable amount of exploring, we finished the study and moved on. In July 2004 our first paper on the reptile and mammal fauna of the island was published in the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, and we are still preparing a more detailed account or a forthcoming book. While we were in Australia, Dr. Sprackland and the research project were featured in an article in The Cairns Post. An expedition report will also be prepared for this website.

VMNH Director Daniel Diessner is also making some final updates and technical modifications to the CD-ROM, "Key to the Sharks and Rays of the World", the first comprehensive identification key to these fishes since 1913. Released in 1998 (Version 1.3), it includes data on every known shark and ray as of early 1998.  Look for the release of Version 2.0 by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, VMNH Director Robert Sprackland has taken a senior position at a brick-and-mortar museum. As of December 2003, he assumed the role of science director of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland (on-line at www.omsi.edu). In this role he oversees all scientific content and supervises the Research& Development, Evaluations, and Collections divisions. 

We have been accumulating dozens of new photographs to post on the website in the (hopefully) near future. Another project competing for our time is the writing of the completely revised and updated second edition of Giant Lizards, written by Robert Sprackland and first published in 1992. It is scheduled for release in early 2005, and will have contributions from some of the world's most notable breeders of large lizards.

Along with coauthors Mark O’Shea and Ilaiah Bigilale, I have published on the discovery of the first record of the python genus Antaresia from New Guinea in issue 3 of the 2004 volume of Herpetological Review

In addition, we have accumulated many excellent new photos that we plan to add to our Web of Life in the coming months, and I have contracted with TFH Publications to produce a completely revised and expanded second edition of my book Giant Lizards, to be released in 2005.

We have supplied photos or data to several educational websites, publishers, and government agencies; contributed to several episodes of the syndicated radio program Pet Tales; and continue to support two elementary schools in Papua New Guinea.

And that's all for this report. Thank you for visiting the Virtual Museum of Natural History, and we hope you will continue to enjoy and benefit from our project. After all, we’re still always open, always free!

Best wishes,

Robert G. Sprackland, Ph.D., VMNH Director & President
               Email: director@curator.org