Zoologischer Anzeiger (A Journal of Comparative Zoology) is devoted to comparative zoology with a special emphasis on morphology, systematics, biogeography, and evolutionary biology targeting all metazoans, both modern and extinct. The journal also considers taxonomic submissions addressing a broader systematic and/or evolutionary context. The overall aim of the journal is to contribute to our understanding of the organismic world from an evolutionary perspective.

Editor-in-Chief
Carsten Lüter
Museum of Natural History - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Berlin, Germany
Email Carsten Lüter
Tentaculata, Mollusca, Marine Deuterostomia
Editors
Sven Bradler
University of Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany
Email Sven Bradler
Arthropoda (Hexapoda)
Joachim Haug
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Department Biology II, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
Email Joachim Haug
Arthropoda (Crustacea, Myriapoda)
Alexander Kupfer
Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History Department of Zoology, Stuttgart, Germany
Email Alexander Kupfer
Vertebrata (Amphibia and Sauropsida)
Peter Michalik
University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
Email Peter Michalik
Arthropoda (Onychophora, Tardigrada, Chelicerata)
Martin Vinther Sørensen
University of Copenhagen, København, Denmark
Email Martin Vinther Sørensen
Protostomia (excl. Arthropoda, Mollusca, Tentaculata), Coelenterata, Porifera
Janine M. Ziermann
Howard University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Email Janine M. Ziermann
Vertebrata (Mammalia and "Pisces")
Advisory Board
Rolf Beutel
Friedrich Schiller University Jena Institute of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology and Phyletic Museum, Jena, Germany
Walter J. Bock
Columbia University, New York, New York, United States
Organisms are the result of evolutionary history and continue to survive because of the way they interact as individuals with the demands placed on them by their external environment. My research lies in the general area of organismal and evolutionary biology, with special emphasis on functional and evolutionary morphology of the skeletomuscular system. In particular, most of my research deals with the feeding apparatus of birds. I have chosen this area because the feeding apparatus is essential to the survival of individual organisms, because great diversity exists in the feeding apparatus of birds, and because the subject is sufficiently complex to permit insights into the questions of integrated morphological systems without being overwhelmed by details. Theskeletomuscular system is analyzed using a series of mechanical approaches, including free body analysis. Special care is taken to look at all levels of organization from the fiber level to that of the whole feeding apparatus, using both reductionistic and integrative approaches. My evolutionary studies center on the questions of biological adaptation and major evolutionary change. Most of this work is theory development. It has been essential to include ideas from the philosophy of science, as, for example, types of explanations. Some of the work deals with particular evolutionary events such as the origin of flight in birds, including the origin of avian flight. These evolutionary studies also include systematics based on comparative morphological analyses. Most of these taxonomic studies are on higher categorical levels, namely families of birds. However, I am also involved in compiling a second edition of a list of avian species of the world that necessitates an understanding of species taxonomy and the many problems of geographical variations. 

Julia A. Clarke
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States

Maikon Di Domenico
Federal University of Parana Centre of Marine Studies, PONTAL DO PARANA, Brazil
Zoologist, oceanographer, and professor at the Center for Marine Studies, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil. Maikon Di Domenico did his Ph.D. in zoology at the Federal University of Paraná, and University of Copenhagen. He worked with morphology, taxonomy, and phylogeny of various invertebrate groups, such as Annelida, which is his primary group, but also Gastrotricha, Kinorhycnha, and Echinodermata. His current research goal is to use marine invertebrates as adaptive-biological models within the interdisciplinary perspectives of zoology, oceanography, and ecology. Dr. Di Domenico is present or past member of the International Association of Meiobenthologists, The International Polychaetology Association, and Brazilian Society of Zoology.

Marissa Fabrezi
NOA Institute of Bio and Geosciences, Rosario de Lerma, Argentina

Edmund Gittenberger
Naturalis National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, Netherlands

Maria Herranz
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Research Project: Diversity, evolution & functional morphology of marine meiofauna (kinorhynchs)Education: PhD (2014) Cum laude, MSc (2009) and BSc (2007) in Biology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.

Rick Hochberg
University of Massachusetts Lowell College of Sciences, Lowell, Massachusetts, United States
Our research is dedicated to describing invertebrate biodiversity from the aquatic and microscopic (rotifers, gastrotrichs) to the terrestrial and macroscopic (whipscorpions, whipsiders) and everything in between, including a variety of parasites (ticks, mosquitoes). Together we describe new species, explore their evolution, and define their functional roles in the environment. We use a variety of methods and technologies to research these topics including DIC microscopy, histology, histochemistry, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and molecular sequencing. We collaborate with researchers from across the globe and are always open to new partnerships, new ideas, and most importantly, working on new animals!

Vida Jojic
University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
RESEARCH INTERESTSMorphological variability and its components (canalization, developmental stability and morphological integration)Traditional and geometric morphometrics Evolution of complex morphological structures in mammals (particularly rodents, canids and bats)
Supernumerary B chromosomes, i.e. their phenotypic effects and the maintenance primarily in a model organism - yellow-necked field mouse Apodemus flavicollis (Rodentia, Mammalia)

Reinhardt M. Kristensen
University of Copenhagen, København, Denmark

Carlo Meloro
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
I am a vertebrate palaeontologist, also passionate about wildlife, zoology and conservation biology. My research focus on mammalian ecomorphology and functional adaptation in the vertebrate skeleton.I employ methods such as geometric morphometrics and comparative approaches to reveal ecology and evolution of extant and fossil species.The aim of my research is to promote an integrated approach to our understanding of animal diversity on earth in the past, the present and the future.

Alessandro Minelli
University of Padua, Padova, Italy
Minelli is best known for his studies in evolutionary developmental biology, or evo-devo. His main contributions are about the conceptual foundations of this discipline. In his search for an intellectual framework common to evolutionary biology and developmental biology, he has strongly argued against the widespread adultocentrism, that is, interpreting development, in a more or less distinct teleological vein, as a process targeted to the production of an adult animal or plant. At variance with the most popular trend in evo-devo, which is based on comparative developmental genetics and has a clear focus on early stages of embryonic development, the approach defended by Minelli is strongly rooted in comparative morphology and aims to extend to postembryonic development. His approach moves from a revisitation of the traditional concepts of homology. According to Minelli, the homology relationships between two structures is necessarily limited to selected features of those structures, thus requiring the adoption a factorial, or combinatorial concept of homology. Minelli has introduced new concepts, such as axis paramorphism (useful for understanding the evolutionary relationships between the main axis of the body and its appendages) and those of eosegment and merosegment, through which he suggests a radical revisitation of the architecture of the body of segmented animals. Minelli has also explored the implication of evo-devo for biological systematics, speciation and the evolution of life cycles.

Michael Ohl
Museum of Natural History - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Berlin, Germany
Research interestsMy research focus is on the taxonomy, phylogeny, and evolution of holometabolous insects, with special emphasis on Hymenoptera and Neuropterida. I am particularly interested in the global taxonomy and phylogeny of the highly diverse apoid wasps within the aculeate Hymenoptera. Another focus is on the taxonomy and phylogeny of the Mantispidae, a relatively small but weakly studied group of neuropterid insects.As a conceptual framework of my empirical studies, I am also interested in the theoretical and methodological foundation of biological systematics, with special emphasis on taxonomy, and in the history of biology.

Andrew R. Parker
Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom

Alfredo V. Peretti
National University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina
My research line is oriented to the study of the reproductive biology of arachnids and other arthropods. In this context, my studies focus on many aspects of reproduction from sexual selection perspectives. Although the approach of my work is mainly behavioral, I try to include topics associated with ecology, functional morphology, physiology and genetics.Some works have a greater component of comparative biology while others are of experimental type, depending on the kind of questions and organisms involved in the study. My main interest is to offer an integrative vision of sexual selection perspectives (both theoretical and practical issues), and to address useful methodological revisions. I am interested in using particular species as “models” of study (e.g., to answer specific questions about mechanisms of sexual biology). In addition, I want to provide descriptive data in various groups (e.g., reproductive patterns) since they can enrich our knowledge of the huge diversity of arachnids of Argentina. Within the arachnids, among some groups, I have worked with scorpions, spiders and solpugids: complementarily, amblypygids, opilions and ricinulids; in insects, mainly odonates. Sporadically, I have studied some aspects of sexual biology in fishes in order to learn and refine my vision at a macro-comparative level (e.g., analogies, evolutionary convergences in reproductive strategies). I coordinate a young and enthusiastic group of PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers on reproductive biology and evolution of arachnids and other arthropods.E-mail: mailto:aperettibec@gmail.com" 

Martin J. Ramirez
Bernardino Rivadavia Argentinian Museum of Natural Sciences, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Olivier Rieppel
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, United States
During the Mesozoic, also called the “Age of Reptiles,” a number of reptile lineages secondarily adapted to life in the sea. Over the past twenty years, I have pursued a global revision of Triassic stem-group Sauropterygia, marine reptiles that later gave rise to the more widely known plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and elasmosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous. This work provided the basis for the ongoing collaborative research program with faculty and students of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and of the Peking University in Beijing, focusing on new collections of Triassic marine reptiles from southwestern China. These new collections require taxonomic work not only on sauropteryians, but also on other marine reptiles such as protorosaurs and thalattosaurs. Most recently, the early Upper Triassic of Guizhou Province has yielded ancestral turtles. The Triassic record of marine reptiles is rich and diverse, and allows the study of broad evolutionary patterns as originally terrestrial reptile lineages adapted to marine habitats.I'm also involved in research on the origin of snakes. This collaborative research program seeks to integrate paleontology, comparative morphology and molecular systematics. The origin of snakes is a longstanding problem in the evolution of reptiles that still awaits a satisfactory resolution. It is now embedded in a broad-scale investigation of the evolutionary history and relationships of squamate reptiles (snakes, worm lizards, and other lizards) as part of the Tree of Life program sponsored by the US National Science Foundation.Finally, I take an active interest in the history and philosophy of comparative biology. This involves research on the history of evolutionary thought, on the ontology of evolving entities, and on the history and philosophy of biological systematics from Ernst Haeckel to Willi Hennig.

Michael Schmitt
University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
Research interests
Taxonomy of the shining leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae: Criocerinae)Faunistics of the Chrysomelidae (s.l.) of Central EuropeFunctional morphology of the copulation in Coleoptera PhytophagaHistory of biology, especially of Phylogenetic Systematics

Ellen E. Strong
National Museum of Natural History, Washington, District of Columbia, United States