James D. Lazell, Jr.
American herpetologist and non-fiction author (1939- )
James Draper Lazell, Jr. (born 5 September 1939) is an American biologist and non-fiction author. His research focuses on herpetology and mammalogy.
Biography
Lazell is the son of James Draper Lazell, Sr., a businessman, and Katee Quin Lazell, a porcelain restorer. He grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts at University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee in 1961, a Master of Science at University of Illinois in 1963, and a Master of Arts at Harvard University in 1966. He received his Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Rhode Island (URI) with a dissertation on Anolis species of the West Indies. In 1970, he became a research associate at the Massachusetts Audubon Society. From 1966 to 1974, he was a science teacher and department head at the Palfrey Street School in Watertown, Massachusetts. In 1969, he joined the National Park Service and also worked as a herpetologist at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James D. Lazell, Jr.” is american herpetologist and non-fiction author (1939- ). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Lazell and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american herpetologist and non-fiction author (1939- )” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21390055. VIAF identifies the subject as 32236379. The Library of Congress control number is n50037191. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1961, 1963 and 1966.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “James D. Lazell, Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.