Welcome

"Accurate taxonomy is the foundation for comparative biology, biodiversity studies, and successful conservation and, to be completed quickly and robustly, will require international consortia ... Describing the global biodiversity of Scyphozoa is just the kind of Ôbig scienceÕ currently favoured by biological funding agencies. Scyphozoan taxonomy finds itself at a time of great opportunity to meet this challenge [due to] technological advances, molecular phylogenetic techniques, modern morphological approaches, expertise in established approaches to taxonomy, the ICZN and historical literature."
M. N Dawson (2005) J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK 85:733-739.

"Research on gelatinous zooplankton must strive toward developing and utilizing large-scale approaches" ... "Think Big!"
J. Purcell - Plenary address at 2nd International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium, Coolangatta, Australia, 26 June 2007

This workshop will review the goals and scope of the Cnidarian Tree of Life (CnidToL) project , encourage international collaboration on phylogenetic analyses of scyphozoans (and other cnidarians), and explain how this foundation will promote many more opportunities to research the biology of jellyfish. The workshop will also provide introductions to [1] keeping polyps and medusae in aquaria which is a key skill for research, [2] standardized quantitative morphological analyses of medusae and polyps which are necessary for objective multi-investigator global comparative analyses, and [3] molecular genetics including structural and phylogenetic analyses of whole mitochondrial genomes which may help resolve the deepest relationships among the cnidarians but also will yield rapidly evolving markers for population genetic analyses.


Welcome
"Accurate taxonomy is the foundation for comparative biology, biodiversity studies, and successful conservation and, to be completed quickly and robustly, will require international consortia ... Describing the global biodiversity of Scyphozoa is just the kind of Ôbig scienceÕ currently favoured by biological funding agencies. Scyphozoan taxonomy finds itself at a time of great opportunity to meet this challenge [due to] technological advances, molecular phylogenetic techniques, modern morphological approaches, expertise in established approaches to taxonomy, the ICZN and historical literature." M. N Dawson (2005) J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK 85:733-739. "Research on gelatinous zooplankton must strive toward developing and utilizing large-scale approaches" ... "Think Big!" J. Purcell - Plenary address at 2nd International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium, Coolangatta, Australia, 26 June 2007 This workshop will review the goals and scope of the Cnidarian Tree of Life (CnidToL) project , encourage international collaboration on phylogenetic analyses of scyphozoans (and other cnidarians), and explain how this foundation will promote many more opportunities to research the biology of jellyfish. The workshop will also provide introductions to [1] keeping polyps and medusae in aquaria which is a key skill for research, [2] standardized quantitative morphological analyses of medusae and polyps which are necessary for objective multi-investigator global comparative analyses, and [3] molecular genetics including structural and phylogenetic analyses of whole mitochondrial genomes which may help resolve the deepest relationships among the cnidarians but also will yield rapidly evolving markers for population genetic analyses.