This book consists of three sections, each worldwide in coverage. The first and longest section, by Kraig Adler, is a series of completely new biographies of the leading contributors to herpetology beginning with the author of the first book on the subject, Nicolò Leoniceno (1428–1524). The accounts have a portrait, signature, and references for further interest. These feature 285 herpetologists and also include information about their colleagues and students and many other persons. The comprehensive index encompasses volumes 1 and 2 and covers nearly 1,400 individuals.

Among the biographies included in volume 2 are these:

• Authorities on venomous snakes and antivenoms—Brazil, Calmette, Charas, Fayrer, Fontana, Mitchell, and Noguchi.
  
• Bartram, Bocourt, Cantor, Catesby, David, the Grandidiers, Pallas, Rüppell, the Sarasins, Swinhoe, and others who explored then-unknown continents.
• The classifiers, Blainville, Brongniart, Oppel, and Ray.
  
• Aldrovandi, Bogert, Brongersma, Dickerson, Lichtenstein, McCoy, Wettstein and others who built great museum collections.
  
• The anatomists, Gadow, Gegenbaur, Hyrtl, Lebedkina, Leydig, Rathke, Severino, Tyson, and Wiedersheim.
  
• The artistic team of Sowerby and Lear.
  
• Experts on diseases and cures, Elkan and Reichenbach-Klinke.
  
• Popular writers, among them Behler, Bellairs, the Conants, Hopley, the Mintons, Oliver, Rose, Topsell, and Worrell.
  Coverage is global: Africa (El-Toubi, FitzSimons, Power), Asia (Chang, .a`o, Gasperetti, Gharpurey, Hoofien, Hora, Hu, Kirtisinghe, Makino, Namiye, Tweedie), Australia (Fry, Lucas, Macleay, Storr), Europe (Ahl, Boscá, Cherchi, Cott, Dely, Eiselt, Flower, Gmelin, Guibé, Guichenot, Hediger, Hellmich, Hillenius, Lataste, Mocquard, Morescalchi, Rasmussen, Spinar), North America (Auffenberg, Barton, the Brimleys, Burt, Cagle, De Kay, Estes, Gorham, Hallowell, Lowe, Mosauer, Neill, Perkins, Schwartz, Slevin, Strecker, Yarrow), and Central and South America (Álvarez del Toro, Carvalho, Freiberg, Gomes, the Iherings, Laurent, Orcés, Orejas Miranda, Picado, Rand, Vellard).
  

Also included are experts on taxonomic groups such as salamanders (Brame, Green, Rusconi, Twitty, the Wilders, Wolterstorff, Wurffbain), turtles (Caldesi, Hay, Schweigger, Wermuth), and snakes (Fukada, Mell, Saint Girons, Slowinski, Stull, Underwood). The book contains an additional 150 biographies.

The second section, by John S. Applegarth, is an index of 3,603 authors in taxonomic herpetology. This alphabetical list includes the full names, dates, countries of residence, and orders of taxa for everyone who has proposed a new taxon (genus or below, within the living families) or has had a taxon named in their honor. This is a unique resource for zoologists, historians, and librarians. In less than two decades (since the 1989 edition), the number of persons covered has increased by nearly 50 percent.

The third section, by Ronald Altig, is a listing of herpetologists giving the names of their doctoral university, their major professor, and the date of their degree. This extensive revision is three times longer than the 1989 edition. The information is arranged in such a manner that the academic lineages can be followed from generation to generation, both forward and backward in time. 3,810 names are included and fully indexed.