Gonzalo Giribet

Last updated
Gonzalo Giribet
Born (1970-09-02) September 2, 1970 (age 53)
Burgos, Spain
Alma mater University of Barcelona
Awards Guggenheim Fellow (2016) [1]
Scientific career
Fields Invertebrate zoology
Institutions Harvard University

Gonzalo Giribet is a Spanish-American invertebrate zoologist and Alexander Agassiz Professor of zoology working on systematics and biogeography at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Harvard University. [2] He is a past president of the International Society for Invertebrate Morphology, of the Willi Hennig Society, and vice-president of the Sociedad Española de Malacología (Spanish Malacological Society). [3]

Contents

Early life

Giribet was born in Burgos and grew up in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Catalonia to a legal administrator and an engineer who worked in nuclear power plants. As a boy, he enjoyed windsurfing, beachcombing, and collecting sea shells. He attended, and then graduated from, the University of Barcelona in 1993, with bachelor's degrees in zoology and fundamental biology. He completed his doctorate in animal biology in 1997. [4] He then moved to the American Museum of Natural History for postdoctoral research with Ward Wheeler, and from there moved to Harvard University in 2000, where he went through the ranks until becoming full professor in 2007, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in 2013, and Harvard College Professor in 2017. [5]

Career

Giribet is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London; a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History, New York; a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; and an honorary research fellow at The Natural History Museum, London. Since 2014 he is Foreign Member of the biology section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona. In 2017 Giribet received an honorary doctorate (Doctor honoris causa) from the University of Copenhagen.

Early career

In 1996, he and his Spanish colleagues discovered that arthropods are monophyletic and that tardigrades are their sister group. [6] In the same year, he, with the same group of authors, suggested that metazoan species are polymorphistic after he studied flatworm groups such as Dugesia , Seriata, Tricladida and Turbellaria. [7] In 1999, he proposed to include Cycliophora as a sister group of Syndermata. [8]

Later career

In 2001, with his colleagues from Australian Museum studied the systematics of some Arthropoda species. [9]

In 2002, he and Ward Wheeler suggested that the molluscan bivalve group Anomalodesmata should be classless, and that the orders Myoida and Veneroida are not monophyletic. [10]

The same year, he, Gregory Edgecombe, and their colleagues studied the phylogenetics of harvestmen, Opiliones, using data from 18s and 28s rRNA genes and morphology. Based on these analyses, they proposed that Dyspnoi and Laniatores formed the clade Dyspnolaniatores, which should be used as new classification for Opiliones. [11] His later studies corroborated instead the traditional clade Palpatores, formed by Eupnoi and Dyspnoi. [12]

In 2006, he, along with Jon Mallatt, provided evidence that Branchiopoda not Malacostraca is the sister group of Hexapoda after studying ribosomal RNA in various phyla including Kinorhyncha and Ecdysozoa. [13] The same year, he also participated at Harvard Museum of Natural History exhibit where he, Naomi Pierce, Brian D. Farrell, and E. O. Wilson showed species of whip scorpions and Sonoran Desert millipedes. [14]

In 2007, he traveled to New Zealand for intensive sampling of daddy longlegs and other invertebrates. [4] In August 2007, he traveled to Florida, where he demonstrated that mite harvestmen found there are relatives of West African species, because when the supercontinent Pangea broke up the North American part took some of those species with it. [15]

In 2009, he discovered the origin and evolution of animal organ systems by studying such bilaterian groups as Acoela and Nemertodermatida, which also showed that Acoelomorpha is not a sister group to them. During the same study he also suggested that the genus Xenoturbella is not a part of Deuterostoma super phylum, and that the genus Symbion and the Deuterostoma actually belong to the Bryzoa and Entoprocta subphyla. [16]

In 2009, he and his students traveled to West Africa particularly to Cameroon and Gabon, where they collected velvet worms to compare them to the species found in Central, South America, and the Caribbean. [17]

In 2022, a research group led by him and Prashant P. Sharma, his former Ph.D. student, showed that Arachnida is not monophyletic, using a dataset of over 500 genome libraries and morphology. [18] In that study, horseshoe crabs were placed inside the arachnids, which suggests a complex history of terrestrialization in Chelicerata and challenges the century-old dogma of a single colonization of land in arachnids.

In 2023, his laboratory produced the first complete genome sequence of Onychophora, commonly known as the velvet worms. [19]

Personal life

Giribet participates in various Windsurfing championships, including the Spanish National Championship, the European Championship, and the World Championship. [20]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arachnid</span> Class of arthropods

Arachnida is a class of joint-legged arthropods, in the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, camel spiders, whip spiders and vinegaroons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opiliones</span> Order of arachnids (harvestmen/daddy longlegs)

The Opiliones are an order of arachnids colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs. As of April 2017, over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, although the total number of extant species may exceed 10,000. The order Opiliones includes five suborders: Cyphophthalmi, Eupnoi, Dyspnoi, Laniatores, and Tetrophthalmi, which were named in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea spider</span> Order of marine arthropods

Sea spiders are marine arthropods of the order Pantopoda, belonging to the class Pycnogonida, hence they are also called pycnogonids. They are cosmopolitan, found in oceans around the world. The over 1,300 known species have leg spans ranging from 1 mm (0.04 in) to over 70 cm (2.3 ft). Most are toward the smaller end of this range in relatively shallow depths; however, they can grow to be quite large in Antarctic and deep waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyphophthalmi</span> Suborder of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

Cyphophthalmi is a suborder of harvestmen, colloquially known as mite harvestmen. Cyphophthalmi comprises 36 genera, and more than two hundred described species. The six families are currently grouped into three infraorders: the Boreophthalmi, Scopulophthalmi, and Sternophthalmi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dromopoda</span> Subclass of arachnids

Dromopoda is a proposed subclass of the arachnids, including the Opiliones (harvestmen), Scorpions, Pseudoscorpions and Solifugae. The latter three are sometimes grouped as Novogenuata. Combined morphological and molecular analyses have shown Dromopoda to be monophyletic. However, a strictly molecular analysis did not support the monophyly of Dromopoda.

<i>Phalangium opilio</i> Species of harvestman/daddy longlegs

Phalangium opilio is a species of harvestman belonging to the family Phalangiidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troglosironidae</span> Family of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

Troglosironidae is a family of harvestmen with seventeen described species in a single genus, Troglosiro, which is found on the island of New Caledonia, in the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neogoveidae</span> Family of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

The Neogoveidae are a family of harvestmen with 27 described species in eight genera. However, eight species of Huitaca, 17 species of Metagovea and 12 species of Neogovea are currently awaiting description.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ischyropsalididae</span> Family of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

Ischyropsalididae is a family of harvestmen with 35 described species in 3 genera, found in Europe and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvestman phylogeny</span> Order of arachnids

Harvestmen (Opiliones) are an order of arachnids often confused with spiders, though the two orders are not closely related. Research on harvestman phylogeny is in a state of flux. While some families are clearly monophyletic, that is share a common ancestor, others are not, and the relationships between families are often not well understood.

<i>Theromaster brunneus</i> Species of harvestman/daddy longlegs

Theromaster brunneus is a species of armoured harvestman in the family Travuniidae. It is found in North America.

<i>Theromaster</i> Genus of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

Theromaster is a genus of armoured harvestmen in the family Cladonychiidae. There are at least two described species in Theromaster, found in the eastern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travunioidea</span> Superfamily of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

Travunioidea is a superfamily of armoured harvestmen in the order Opiliones. There are 4 families and more than 70 described species in Travunioidea.

Wespus is a genus of armoured harvestmen in the family Phalangodidae. There is at least one described species in Wespus, W. arkansasensis.

<i>Siro exilis</i> Species of harvestman/daddy longlegs

Siro exilis is a species of mite harvestman in the family Sironidae. It is found in North America.

<i>Phalangodes</i> Genus of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

Phalangodes is a genus of armoured harvestmen in the family Phalangodidae. There is at least one described species in Phalangodes, P. armata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Edgecombe</span> Paleontologist

Gregory Donald Edgecombe is a merit researcher in the department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum, London. He is a leading figure in understanding the evolution of arthropods, their position in animal evolution and the integration of fossil data into analyses of animal phylogeny. As a palaeontologist, he is also an authority on the systematics of centipedes – and a morphologist whose work contributes to the growth and methods of analysis of molecular datasets for inferring evolutionary relationships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryptomastridae</span> Family of harvestmen/daddy longlegs

Cryptomastridae is a family of armoured harvestmen in the order Opiliones. There are two genera and four described species in Cryptomastridae, found in Oregon and Idaho.

Prashant P. Sharma is an Indian-American invertebrate biologist and a professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

References

  1. ↑ "Current fellow" . Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Learning through doing". Harvard Gazette. June 11, 2013. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Gonzalo Giribet". Harvard University. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  4. 1 2 Alvin Powell (November 20, 2007). "Gonzalo Giribet: A life of biodiversity". Harvard Gazette . Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  5. ↑ Stephanie Kacoyanis (May 3, 2017). "5 awarded Harvard College Professorships". The Harvard Gazette. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  6. ↑ Gonzalo Giribet; Salvador Carranza; Jaume Bagui; Marta Riutort; Caries Ribera (1996). "First Molecular Evidence for the Existence of a Tardigrada + Arthropoda Clade". Molecular Biology and Evolution . 13 (1): 76–84. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a025573 . PMID   8583909.
  7. ↑ Salvador Carranza; Gonzalo Giribet; Caries Ribera,? Jaume Baguii; Marta Riutort (1996). "Evidence that Two Types of 18s rDNA Coexist in the Genome of Dugesia (Schmidtea) mediterranea (Platyhelminthes, Turbellaria, Tricladida)". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 13 (6): 824–832. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a025643 . PMID   8754218.
  8. ↑ Gonzalo Giribet; Daniel L. Distel; Martin Polz; Wolfgang Sterrer; Ward C. Wheeler (2000). "Triploblastic Relationships with Emphasis on the Acoelomates and the Position of Gnathostomulida, Cycliophora, Plathelminthes, and Chaetognatha: A Combined Approach of 18S rDNA Sequences and Morphology". Systematic Biology . 49 (3): 539–562. doi: 10.1080/10635159950127385 . PMID   12116426.
  9. ↑ Gonzalo Giribet; Gregory D. Edgecombe; Ward C. Wheeler (2001). "Arthropod phylogeny based on eight molecular loci and morphology". Nature . 413 (6852): 157–161. Bibcode:2001Natur.413..157G. doi:10.1038/35093097. PMID   11557979. S2CID   4431635.
  10. ↑ Gonzalo Giribet; Ward Wheeler (November 2002). "On bivalve phylogeny: a high-level analysis of the Bivalvia (Mollusca) based on combined morphology and DNA sequence data". Invertebrate Biology . 121 (4): 271–324. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7410.2002.tb00132.x .
  11. ↑ Giribet G, Edgecombe GD, Wheeler WC, Babbitt C (2002). "Phylogeny and Systematic Position of Opiliones: A Combined Analysis of Chelicerate Relationships Using Morphological and Molecular Data". Cladistics . 18 (1): 5–70. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2002.tb00140.x . PMID   14552352. S2CID   16833833.
  12. ↑ Giribet, Gonzalo; Vogt, Lars; González, Abel Pérez; Sharma, Prashant; Kury, Adriano B. (August 2010). "A multilocus approach to harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones) phylogeny with emphasis on biogeography and the systematics of Laniatores". Cladistics. 26 (4): 408–437. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2009.00296.x .
  13. ↑ Jon Mallatt; Gonzalo Giribet (2006). "Further use of nearly complete 28S and 18S rRNA genes to classify Ecdysozoa: 37 more arthropods and a kinorhynch". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40 (1): 772–794. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.04.021. PMID   16781168.
  14. ↑ Alvin Powell (October 5, 2006). "Arthropods invade Harvard Museum of Natural History". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  15. ↑ Carl Zimmer (August 28, 2007). "A Daddy Longlegs Tells the Story of the Continents' Big Shifts". The New York Times . Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  16. ↑ Hejnol A, Obst M, Stamatakis A, et al. (2009). "Assessing the root of bilaterian animals with scalable phylogenomic methods". Proceedings of the Royal Society B . 276 (1677): 4261–70. doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0896. PMC   2817096 . PMID   19759036.
  17. ↑ Alvin Powell (March 4, 2010). "Deep thinking". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  18. ↑ Ballesteros, Jesús A; Santibáñez-López, Carlos E; Baker, Caitlin M; Benavides, Ligia R; Cunha, Tauana J; Gainett, Guilherme; Ontano, Andrew Z; Setton, Emily V W; Arango, Claudia P; Gavish-Regev, Efrat; Harvey, Mark S; Wheeler, Ward C; Hormiga, Gustavo; Giribet, Gonzalo; Sharma, Prashant P (2022-02-03). Teeling, Emma (ed.). "Comprehensive Species Sampling and Sophisticated Algorithmic Approaches Refute the Monophyly of Arachnida". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 39 (2): msac021. doi:10.1093/molbev/msac021. ISSN   0737-4038. PMC   8845124 . PMID   35137183.
  19. ↑ Sato, Shoyo; Cunha, Tauana J; de Medeiros, Bruno A S; Khost, Danielle E; Sackton, Timothy B; Giribet, Gonzalo (2023-03-03). Vieira, Cristina (ed.). "Sizing Up the Onychophoran Genome: Repeats, Introns, and Gene Family Expansion Contribute to Genome Gigantism in Epiperipatus broadwayi". Genome Biology and Evolution. 15 (3): evad021. doi:10.1093/gbe/evad021. ISSN   1759-6653. PMC   9985152 . PMID   36790097.
  20. ↑ Christina Pazzanese (June 16, 2015). "Race ready". Harvard Gazette . Retrieved February 7, 2019.
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