Who do you consider to be the largest "pioneer" in the business?

I would agree, Rich must go on the list as well.

Also, me being a tegu man. I would need to add Bert Langerwerf to the list as well. He brought a bunch of different species into the US, and successfully bred them. I might also add, he was the one that brought the super meal worms here, and bred them for the first time in the US. Now they are found in almost every pet shop across America, as well as all over the web.

I had to go with other even though I don't have a particular person in mind. Many others have said it, but I think Evan said it best. The people on this list have done a lot for the bussiness, but in the overall scheme of things there were others who came before who did much more in terms of the importance of their discoveries if not the scale. If I had to pick person off you list I would have gone with Bob Clark, who is also getting more votes by far than anyone else on the list. I wonder if that is because he is first on the list?

John Binns

Jack Dyer

I have to put in my vote. These breeders have been breeding herps since the 70's and have contributed to thousands upon thousands of beautiful captive bred snakes. Their knowledge and experience in the hobby is really staggering if you were to sit and talk herps with these people. Their animals speak volumes. I have been blessed very much to know them and own their animals. The people who have been around for a while in this industry may recognize these names:

John Meltzer-RJ Reptiles
Don Soderberg-South Mountain
Don Shores-Shores Enuff Snakes
The late Ty Kubin-Reptilia, EMI

I don't know why my name is not on my post.....
Billy Fraser

How about Ralph Davis? He is not in the original list. Although he is new to the business (in relative terms) he has done a lot with new boid morphs.

If I'm not mistaken the original question was about: "The terms that were considered were, what did they introduce as far as morphs go, as far as availability goes, etc, etc." If we are talking morphs it's one thing, if we are talking contribution to herpetology as a whole is a completely different topic altogether.

Regards.

besides ditmires and Schmidt and others of published books but how about Dwain ( spelled ) Collins and Josef Laszlo and Zdenek Vogel and J.P Jones and Findlay Russell and Sherman Minton and Ross Allen and Klauber and Kauffeld and Fitch and Cliff Pope ? Among still living I believe and not mentioned, Carl Switick ( spelled ) , James Murphy, Max Nickerson ( Max Allen ), even Hass at what , 92 years old ! If we are talking the " true " pioneers......chime in here..........

What about tortoises- the longest living animal on earth. Dr. Bill Zovickian was hatching radiated tortoises and buying ploughshare tortoises from Madagascar before most on this list were even born. Or, Dr. Charles Townsend who brought a bunch of galapagos tortoises to the U.S. in the 1930's without whom we would only see these tortoises in the Galapagos. These guys are visionaries who did it for passion.

Then how about Darwin?