[Coral-List] Aristotle and marine biodiversity

[Vasilis Gerovasileiou]

Dear colleagues,

 

I am forwarding a message from WoRMS& the European LifeWatch Project for those of you interested in the historyof marine biodiversity and marine taxonomy.

Anthozoans are there as well! Ofcourse, how could they be missing? See story #2 - Aristotle and his remarkableachievements in the field of marine taxonomy.

 

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Aristotle andmarine biodiversity

Many people are unaware that thegreat Greek philosopher Aristotle can also be regarded as “the father of marinebiodiversity”. Indeed, this “Linnaeus avant la lettre” spent a considerablepart of his life studying marine species. In fact, more than 40% of the animalshe studied in his zoological works had a marine origin. If Aristotle were stillalive today, he would have made an excellent ambassador for modern marinebiodiversity research. In recognition of Aristotle’s important contribution tophilosophy and science, UNESCO declared 2016 (the year of his 2400th birthanniversary) as the “Aristotle Anniversary Year”.

To celebrate his specificcontributions to marine sciences, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) incollaboration with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - School of Biologyand the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) features 5 stories, linkingAristotle’s scientific contributions to taxonomy, ecology and speciesdistributions to current-day initiatives such as the World Register of MarineSpecies (WoRMS), the European LifeWatch project (featuring the Belgian andGreek contributions), the European Marine Observation and Data Network(EMODnet) and the European node of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System(EurOBIS).


 
For details visit the following links

http://www.lifewatch.be/en/2016-news-aristotle

http://www.marinespecies.org/news.php?p=show&id=4793 


 

 






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Vasilis Gerovasileiou (PhD)

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research(HCMR), Heraklion, Greece

Coordinator & Thematic Editor forthe World Register of marine Cave Species (http://marinespecies.org/worcs/)

ResearchGate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vasilis_Gerovasileiou