{{short description|American herpetologist (1928–2025)}} '''Jay Mathers Savage''' (August 1928 – November 3, 2025) was an American herpetologist known for his research on reptiles and amphibians of Central America. He was a past president of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the Southern California Academy of Sciences. He received his bachelor's (1950), master's (1954), and doctoral (1955) degrees from Stanford University. He produced around 200 publications, including the books ''Evolution'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968) and ''The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna between Two Continents, between Two Sea'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002). He was an emeritus professor at the University of Miami and adjunct professor at San Diego State University.
He was the first to describe, in 1966, the now-extinct golden toad (''Incilius periglenes'') of Monteverde, Costa Rica.<ref name="Savage1966">{{cite journal|author=Savage, Jay M.|year=1965|title=An extraordinary new toad (''Bufo'') from Costa Rica|journal=Revista de Biología Tropical|volume=14|pages=153–167|url=http://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?pid=S0034-77442002000200033&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en|access-date=2009-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626230814/http://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?pid=S0034-77442002000200033&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en|archive-date=2015-06-26}}</ref>
Savage died on November 3, 2025, at the age of 97.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-02-26 |title=2026 Events Honoring Jay M. Savage at JMIH |url=https://ssarherps.org/2026/02/savage-events/ |access-date=2026-03-15 |website=Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Taxa named in his honor== Savage is commemorated in the scientific names of 18 animal species.
===Amphibians=== The frog genus ''Barycholos'' (from the Greek word for "savage")<ref>{{cite journal|last=Heyer, W. Ronald |author-link=species:William Ronald Heyer |year=1969 |title=Studies on the genus ''Leptodactylus'' (Amphibia, Leptodactylidae) III. A redefinition of the genus ''Leptodactylus'' and a description of a new genus of leptodactylid frogs |journal=Contributions in Science. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County |number=155 |pages=1–14 |url=http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/pdf/contrib_science/CS155.pdf |access-date=2016-02-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629121447/http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/pdf/contrib_science/CS155.pdf |archive-date=2016-06-29 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Donnelly 2013">{{cite journal|last1=Donnelly, Maureen A.|author-link=Maureen Ann Donnelly|title=Jay M. Savage|journal=Copeia|date=2013|volume=2013|issue=4|pages=757–767|doi=10.1643/OT-13-008|s2cid=86307298}}</ref><ref name=EDR>{{cite book|author1=Beolens, Bo|author1-link=Bo Beolens|author2=Watkins, Michael|author2-link=Michael Watkins (zoologist)|author3=Grayson, Michael|author3-link=Michael Grayson|title=The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ovZoFyLhzkC&pg=PA233|date=2011|publisher=Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp.|isbn=978-1-4214-0135-5}} ("Savage", p. 233).</ref>
===Reptiles=== *''Diplodactylus savagei'' *''Pseuderemias savagei'' *''Sonora savagei'' *''Sphaerodactylus savagei'' <ref name=EDR/>
===Fish=== ''Rhamphocetichthys savagei'' <small>Paxton, 1989</small>, Savage's bird-snouted whalefish, a species of flabby whalefish.<ref name = ETYFish>{{cite web |url=http://www.etyfish.org/cetomimidae/ |title=Family CETOMIMIDAE Goode & Bean 1895 (Whalefishes) |access-date=10 October 2025 |author1=Scharpf, Christopher |author1-link=species:Christopher Scharpf |author2=Lazara, Kenneth J. |author2-link=species:Kenneth J. Lazara |work=The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database |publisher=Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara |date=22 September 2018}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite journal|last1=Savage|first1=Jay M.|title=Ichs and Herps, My Story|journal=Copeia|date=2015|volume=103|issue=3|pages=702–714|doi=10.1643/OT-15-312|s2cid=83623550}}
==External links== {{Scholia}} *[http://fig.cox.miami.edu/Faculty/Savage/savage.html Jay M. Savage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012081825/http://fig.cox.miami.edu/Faculty/Savage/savage.html |date=2008-10-12 }}, University of Miami.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage, Jay M.}} Category:1928 births Category:American herpetologists Category:San Diego State University faculty Category:University of Miami faculty Category:Stanford University alumni Category:20th-century American zoologists Category:21st-century American zoologists Category:Scientists from Santa Monica, California
{{US-zoologist-stub}} Category:2025 deaths