5 Apr (Mon): Talk on pulmonate gastropods: air-breathing snails and slugs

An assortment of snails and slugs on our shores breathe air through modified gills or simple lungs. They are pulmonate gastropods. These range from the mangrove Belongkeng snails (Family Ellobiidae), rocky shore false limpets with their hat-shaped shells (Family Siphonariidae), to the cute little onch slugs which have no shells at all (Family Onchidiidae).
Find out more about these fascinating snails and slugs at this upcoming talk by Benoît Dayrat at NUS.

"From Alpha-Taxonomy to Mitogenomics: Biodiversity and Evolution of Gastropods"

Benoît Dayrat will present the work that we do in my lab focusing on the evolution and systematics of pulmonate gastropods, more specifically three clades of marine pulmonates: Onchidiidae, Ellobiidae, and Siphonariidae, all of which are represented by several marine (intertidal) species in Singapore.

His team's research focuses on several taxonomic levels: they are interested in using complete mitochondrial genomes and other molecular data sets to study higher relationships among and within basal pulmonates; at the species level, they use combined molecular and morphological data to understand better the species diversity.

Pulmonate gastropods are also used as a case study to address questions of broader interest such as macro-evolutionary transitions from aquatic to terrestrial habitats, as well as questions in theory of nomenclature and taxonomy.

More details on the Biodiversity Crew @ NUS blog.

Date: 5 Apr (Mon)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Department of Biological Sciences Conference Room, Block S3 Level 5
See map: http://tinyurl.com/map-nusdbs