Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles exchanges and international cooperative efforts for study and publications. The society was founded as a regional organization, The Ohio Herpetological Society (OHS), by two young but serious-minded amateurs, Kraig Adler and David M. Dennis, then 16 and 17 years of age respectively. They decided in the fall of 1957 to formalize interactions amongst a small group of amateur herpetologists throughout Ohio and began publishing a combined journal and newsletter (called the "Trimonthly Report") in January 1958. The name of the society was changed to The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles on January 1, 1967. The SSAR publishes
Evolution of reptiles ecological niches throughout the Paleogene and Neogene eras. Some reached enormous sizes and almost as wide a variation as the dinosaurs once did. Nevertheless, mammalian megafauna never quite reached the skyscraper heights of some sauropods. Nonetheless, large reptiles still composed important megafaunal components, such as giant tortoises, large crocodilians and, more locally, large varanids. Testudines, or turtles, may have evolved from anaspids, but their exact origin is unknown and heavily debated. Fossils date back to around 220 million years ago and share remarkably similar characteristics. These first turtles retain the same body plan as do all modern testudines and are