Edward Harrison Taylor

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Edward Harrison Taylor (April 23, 1889 – June 16, 1978) was an American herpetologist from Kansas.

He was born in Maysville, Missouri and studied at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, graduating with a B.A. in 1912. Subsequently, he went to the Philippines, where at first he held a teacher's post in a village in central Mindanao. He collected and studied the local herpetofauna extensively and published many papers. Between 1916 and 1920 he returned briefly to Kansas to finish his M.A. Back on the Philippines, he was appointed Chief of Fisheries in Manila. On his many survey trips he continued collecting and studying fishes and reptiles of the islands.

In 1927, back in the U.S., he became the head of the zoology department of the University of Kansas at Lawrence. From 1929 to 1936, he studied the taxonomy of the genus Eumeces (a common skink). Subsequently, he focused on Mexican herpetofauna, which he explored on many field trips from 1937 to 1948. In the following years, his explorations took him to Costa Rica and Thailand. In 1965, he turned his attention onto Caecilians after having discovered a new species on an island in the Sea of Celebes.

In 1982, a species of Mexican neotenic salamander, Ambystoma taylori and Subspecies of the Western Fence Lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis taylori, were named in his honor.