Brazilian Amazon. The lizard, Anolis williamsmittermeierorum, is named in honor of Mittermeier and American herpetologist Ernest E. Williams. Mittermeier has also been a leader in promoting species-focused ecotourism, particularly primate-watching and primate life-listing, and more recently turtle-watching and turtle life-listing, following the very successful model of the bird-watching community. To facilitate this, he launched a Tropical Field Guide Series and a Pocket Guide Series focused heavily on primates, but including a number of other species groups as well. More recent publications include The Tropical Field Guide Series are Lemurs of Madagascar, Third Edition (2010) and Primates of West Africa (2011) with a French edition of the Lemurs of Madagascar released in 2014. His own primate life-list, now totaling more than 350 species, is among the largest in the world. Mittermeier was born in New York City. He received his B.A.(summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Dartmouth college and Ph.D. from Harvard University in biological anthropology for a thesis entitled, "Distribution, Synecology, and Conservation of Suriname Monkeys" in 1977. Awards and honors Mittermeier's awards and honors include: The Order of the Golden Ark from His Royal Highness Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (1995) The Grand Order of the Southern Cross from the President of Brazil (1997) The Cincinnati Zoo Wildlife Conservation Award (1997) The Brazilian Muriqui Prize (1997) The Grand Sash and Order of the Yellow Star from the President of Suriname Jules Wijdenbosch(1998) The Order of the Southern Cross of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil (1998) The second annual Aldo Leopold Award from the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), 2004. Sigma Xi's John P. McGovern Science and Society Award (2007) The Sir Peter Scott Award of IUCN's Species Survival Commission (2008) The Association of Tropical Biology's Special Recognition Award for Conservation (2008) The twelfth annual Roger Tory Peterson Memorial Award from the Harvard Museum of Natural History (2009) Honorary Degree from Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Florida) in recognition of his conservation work. The Indianapolis Prize for Conservation (2018) Selected bibliography Russell Mittermeier's writing includes 36 books and more than 700 scientific and popular articles. Among his books are The Trilogy Megadiversity (1997), Hotspots (2000) and Wilderness Areas (2002), Wildlife Spectacles (2003), Hotspots Revisited (2004), Transboundary Conservation (2005), Lemurs of Madagascar (1994; 2006; 2010), Pantanal: South America's Wetland Jewel (2005), A Climate for Life (2008), The Wealth of Nature: Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Human Well-Being (2009), Freshwater: The Essence of