Douglas A. Rossman is a U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 herpetologist specializing in Garter snakes. He studied at the University of Florida

University of Florida

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...

, where he was awarded a Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in 1961.

He was a professor of zoology

Zoology

Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

 at the Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...

.

He co-authored The Amphibians and Reptiles of Louisiana (ISBN 0-8071-2077-4), and also The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology (ISBN 0-8061-2820-8).

His wife, Nita Jane Rossman (born 1936), also has an interest in herpetology and even had a subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 named after her: Thamnophis sauritus nitae, a subspecies of the Eastern Ribbon Snake

Eastern Ribbon Snake

The Eastern Ribbon Snake or Common Ribbon Snake is a subspecies of ribbon snake found in the northeastern United States....

. She had collected the holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 for this subspecies on a field trip with her husband for his dissertation research, and he named it in her honor.