- Language: English
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Summary
Sea anemones (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Actiniaria) are among the most diverse and successful members of the anthozoan subclass Hexacorallia, being found in all marine benthic habitats at all depths and latitudes. Despite their morphological simplicity as tissue level organisms, sea anemones are an ancient lineage whose members have remarkably diverse life history strategies, including all reproductive strategies. Their ecological success is undoubtedly facilitated by their propensity for engaging in symbiotic relationships with other animals and microorganisms, including hermit crabs, mollusks, clown fish and photosynthetic algae. From the perspective of phylogenetic systematics and evolutionary biology, their long evolutionary history and remarkable diversity poses problems of broader theoretical or methodological consequence. My research addresses the diversity and evolution of marine invertebrates, focusing on sea anemones. I am interested in questions such as convergence of morphological characters, phylogenetic value of traditionally used taxonomic characters, and relationship between high levels of intraspecific morphological variability and reproductive strategies. Several of my ongoing research projects represent groundbreaking attempts to develop new tools for sea anemone systematics and phylogenetics (e.g. developing different level molecular markers for the group, application of new imaging techniques, etc.). The need for these studies is clear—without this solid phylogenetic baseline and tools we cannot fully understand sea anemone diversity, evolution, and the processes shaping those. In other projects I address the foundation of any evolutionary study, stablishing a baseline of knowledge of the biodiversity of the group, describing and documenting taxa and their characters (e.g. producing species descriptions and regional inventories). In addition, part of my research addresses the critical lack of taxonomic expertise and resources for the group, not only mentoring and forming students and postdoctoral fellows but actively developing resources to make taxonomic expertise more accessible and promoting the inclusion of sea anemones in broader marine invertebrate evolutionary studies.
Brief biography
I am an evolutionary biologist with a fundamental interest in understanding morphological diversity, systematics, evolutionary history, and ecology of anthozoans, with a particular focus on sea anemones (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria). I am originally from Spain where I got my bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1999 at the University of Sevilla. During the following years I continued my studies and did a PhD in collaboration between the University of Sevilla and the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (CMIMA-CSIC) in Barcelona. My PhD research was focused on the taxonomy, biogeography and reproduction of Antarctic sea anemones, allowing me to participate in research cruises, visit different international research institutions and museums. After defending my PhD in 2007, I was a postdoctoral fellow for almost three years at the Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio, USA) where I learnt molecular techniques and a more evolutionary focus to my research on sea anemones. Since 2009, I hold a tenure-track position as the Curator of the Marine Invertebrates collections at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH, NY, USA). In addition to my supervision and care of the collections at the AMNH, I continued my research on the biodiversity and evolution of sea anemones. My research program is solidly stablished and rooted in traditional museum science based on collecting, preparing and using specimens to test hypothesis of sea anemone evolution; this program is externally funded and highly collaborative, with tangible published results in respected per-reviewed journals.
