Group of the month July – Phoronida

This month, I wish to present a very beautiful invertebrate phyla, namely Phoronida – also known as Horseshoe worms.   The phylum is fairly small, with 13 recognized living species, divided into two genera; Phoronis and Phoronopsis. They are found within the phylogenetic grouping of Lophotrochozoa, more specific […]

Månedens gruppe: Loricifera

I månedens gruppe i april tar vi for oss en hel fyla!Loricifera er en av de nyere gruppene, og ble først oppdaget i 1983. Siden den gang har 44 arter blitt navngitt, fra Frankrike til Antarktis og Japan, og flere oppdages hvert år. Jeg skrev en artikkel om […]

Group of the month: Dinophilidae

The group of the month I would like to introduce to you today is a group I have a close personal connection with. The group goes back a long way with me. I will present you the annelid family Dinophilidae. After my Diploma thesis (today Master thesis) on […]

Månedens gruppe: Dinophilidae

Månedens gruppe jeg vil presentere for dere i dag, er en gruppe jeg har et nært personlig forhold til. Gruppen har en lang historie for meg. Jeg vil presentere familien til Annelida Dinophilidae. Etter å ha skrevet diplomoppgave (i dag masteroppgave) om proteiner i et virus relatert til […]

Door 21: Wonderful world of symbioses and a note on conserving biodiversity

Only three days until Christmas! For my final post in the advent calendar, I want to introduce our readers to an essential and complex phenomenon in nature, symbiosis. In our daily language, we might casually refer to symbiosis as a mutually beneficial relationship. However, in ecological terms, symbiosis […]

Day 20: Defending Against Rising Ocean Acidification

As we open the door on day 20, we look at a species in the Invertomics study category in the wild, and highlight a study from 2019 that places Platynereis in a modern context, to assess its capability to act as a model organism for studies of ocean […]

Day 15: What’s coming next year!

December is a time to reflect on the year that has passed, both the happy and sad, the success and the failures. But it’s also a time to look forward to the year ahead, new possibilities and opportunities. For me, this is especially important, as next time December […]

Day 14: When is a Larva like a Birthday Present?

For my second advent calendar entry this year, I would like to highlight one of the most exciting papers I’ve read recently. It came out just last month in Organisms Diversity & Evolution, and is titled “A new Loriciferan, Scaberiloricus samba gen. et sp. nov., links the Higgins larva and […]

Door 9: Conservation of parasite biodiversity

Conservation of biodiversity is increasingly recognized as an important challenge, and numerous reports have addressed the ongoing loss of biodiversity and pinpointed the potential consequences. Even a sixth, man-induced mass extinction has been intensively discussed (e.g., https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-mass-extinction-and-are-we-facing-a-sixth-one.html). Frequently, the focus of such discussions is on endangered iconic species […]

Door 6: Biodiversity, Conservation, and Sticking Up For The Little Guy

For this year’s Advent Calendar, we’ve decided to theme ourselves around climate change and conservation. For my first blog entry, I’ve decided to write more of a background about the general need for marine biodiversity conservation, and some opinions on who should care, and why. I will then […]