Biology of the Reptilia covers behavior, development, ecology, neurology, and physiology, in addition to morphology which was fundamental to the rest, all in 22 volumes and nearly 13,800 pages.

As he wrote in volume 1, Carl Gans’s goal was “to facilitate future work rather than place a tombstone upon past knowledge.”

Surveys of the literature, he noted, had disclosed critical gaps in our knowledge and new investigations were thus needed to complete many of the chapters. He expected that this series would not be the last word, and hoped it would “prove germinal in inducing additional study.”

To access content, visit the Table of Contents page, then go to the volume you are interested in and select the “Detailed Contents” link. From there you can view the full table of contents of that volume. You can jump to any content within that volume by typing in the page number desired and viewing that page.