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An underlying rule in biology is that temperature affects physiological processes. This is salient in ectothermic organisms such as herpetofauna, which must cope with the challenges of changing body temperatures. The limitations associated with living in a dynamic thermal environment often translate into patterns of herpetofaunal distribution and behavior. As such, an understanding of thermal physiology and thermal environment are foundational to studies of herpetofauna. Beginning with a brief review of the contributions of Hal Heatwole and Hal Cogger to the field of thermal ecology, I explore how some methodologies and have changed over time with technological improvements to tackle emergent issues including invasion by herpetofauna and understanding of disease processes. I discuss recent applications of thermal ecology in my own research to understand and predict distribution of invasive herpetofauna, and to understand disease processes in wild populations. Specifically, I discuss the predictive value of critical thermal minima on current and future distributions of invasive lizards introduced to Florida, USA (Leiocephalus carinatus and Furcifer pardalis), obtained through different experimental and computational methods. I also discuss planned methodologies to assess the role of thermoregulation in combatting infection of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and B. salamandrivorans in plethodontid salamanders. 

Insects are possibly the most taxonomically and ecologically diverse class of multicellular organisms on Earth. Consequently, they provide nearly unlimited opportunities to develop and test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. Currently, however, large-scale studies of insect ecology, behavior, and trait evolution are impeded by the difficulty in obtaining and analyzing data derived from natural history observations of insects. These data are typically highly heterogeneous and widely scattered among many sources, which makes developing robust information systems to aggregate and disseminate them a significant challenge. As a step towards this goal, we report initial results of a new effort to develop a standardized vocabulary and ontology for insect natural history data. In particular, we describe a new database of representative insect natural history data derived from multiple sources (but focused on data from specimens in biological collections), an analysis of the abstract conceptual areas required for a comprehensive ontology of insect natural history data, and a database of use cases and competency questions to guide the development of data systems for insect natural history data. We also discuss data modeling and technology-related challenges that must be overcome to implement robust integration of insect natural history data.