Unit for Integrative Zoology

Teaching and research in our group spans across a wide range of animals including vertebrates, arthropods, and lophotrochozoans. These are analyzed using various morphological and molecular methods, including immunolabeling, advanced light and confocal microscopy, 3D reconstruction, high speed video analysis, electron microscopy, and gene expression studies. The data generated are used in integrative and comparative approaches to elucidate body plan evolution, development, functional morphology, ecomorphology and phylogeny of non-model organisms.

News

10.07.2025
 

Paul Arthur Höller

Characterization of neurogenic cell types in Pycnogonum litorale (Strøm, 1762) via gene expression studies

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20.06.2025
 

Mildred Johnson

The life cycle and systematics of the boring ctenostome bryozoan families Immergentiidae and Spathiporidae
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27.03.2025
 

Michaela Haas

Morphologie und Sensillenausstattung des Rüssels der Bläulinge (Lycaenidae)

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New publications

10.07.2025
 

New paper in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society

A genome-skimming phylogeny of ctenostome bryozoans
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03.07.2025
 

New book capter in "The New Taxonomy. A Science Reimagined."

A Single Authoritative List of the World's Species - Background and Road Map
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02.07.2025
 

New paper in BMC Biology

The genome of a sea spider corroborates a shared Hox cluster motif in arthropods with a reduced posterior tagma.

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04.06.2025
 

New paper in communications biology

Host-parasite coevolution leads to underwater respiratory adaptations in extreme diving insects, seal lice (Lepidophthirus macrorhini).

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03.06.2025
 

New paper in communications biology

The ectoparasitic seal louse, Echinophthirius horridus, relies on a sealed tracheal system and spiracle closing apparatus for underwater respiration.

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30.04.2025
 

New paper in Arthropod Structure & Development

Evolution and homology of leg segments in Chelicerata: Evo-devo solutions to century-old challenges.

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09.04.2025
 

Molluscan Shells, Spicules, and Gladii Are Evolutionarily Deeply Conserved.
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27.03.2025
 

New paper in Archiv für Molluskenkunde

Quantitative and qualitative statistical analyses of the shell and the genital traits of the doorsnail genus Montenegrina O. Boettger, 1877...
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05.02.2025
 

New paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution

Red Deer Resequencing Reveals the Importance of Sex Chromosomes for Reconstructing Late Quaternary Events.
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