Institute record of Operationele Directie Taxonomie en Fylogenie

Information

Type

Organization

Name

Operationele Directie Taxonomie en Fylogenie

Name

Operational Directorate Taxonomy and Phylogeny@en

Acronym

IRScNB/KBIN

Parent institute

Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen

Address

Vautierstraat 29, 1000 Brussel, Belgium

Location

latitude

50.8365097

longitude

4.3764901

Description @en

The Operational Directorate Taxonomy and Phylogeny is part of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) which was founded in 1846 under its former name, the 'Koninklijk Natuurhistorisch Museum van België' (Royal Belgian Natural History Museum). This Directorate conducts research on animal biodiversity and evolution, and more specifically, speciation, adaptation, biotic interactions and integrative taxonomy. Particular attention is paid to the identification and description of new taxa (primarily via morphology and DNA barcoding), the expansion of introduced and invasive species, the importance of chemical communication in insects, the effects of habitat disruption, the reconstruction of phylogenetic relations, the spread and biology of zoonoses, and the creationism versus evolution debate. A limited number of marine taxa are studied in this group. Echinoderms (Echinodermata) (in conjunction with the scientific service ""Heritage""), crustaceans (Crustacea), molluscs (Mollusca), annelids (partim: Oligochaeta), flatworms (Platyhelminthes) and sponges (Porifera). The Directorate performs field work in various parts of the world. Especially the work in Antarctica (Southern Ocean) has a marine focus. The research group is for example involved in SCAR-MarBIN 'the Antarctic Marine Biodiversity Information Network'. The team also contributes to EASIN (European Alien Species Information Network) and has been/is involved in several European marine biological research projects. The OD comprises two specialised research teams that are shared with RMCA (Royal Museum for Central Africa):

• JEMU: The Joint Experimental Molecular unit;
• BopCo: Barcoding facility for organisms and tissues of policy concer.