The Montréal Space for Life welcomes professor and biologist Hervé Le Guyader

Surprising kinships - A new and unconventional look at animal classifications

MONTREAL, Oct. 23, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - The Montréal Space for Life is pleased to welcome professor and biologist, Hervé Le Guyader, as part of the Space for Life Lecture Series. Entitled Des parentés insoupçonnées, la classification traditionnelle du monde animal revue et bouleversée, (Surprising kinships, A new and unconventional look at animal classifications), Prof. Le Guyader will give his lecture in the auditorium of the Montréal Botanical Garden on November 6, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.

Did you know that you are more closely related to a mushroom than a flower? That crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to lizards? That dinosaurs are still in our midst? This is what emerges from a completely new way of classifying the animal world that has turned conventional ideas upside down over the past thirty years. This long and painstaking work is now producing its results. Modern classification, now based on an evolutionary tree that attempts to trace the history of life, is starting to be clearly decoded.

A new and unconventional look at animal classifications
Using striking examples, Hervé le Guyader suggests a new understanding of the evolution of the animal world that is derived from this modern classification based on genetic comparisons. He focuses in particular on the origins of the polar bear, to illustrate how difficult and surprising the use of modern techniques founded on genetic decoding of animals can be.

Hervé Le Guyader, a research scientist who is passionate about systematics
Professor Le Guyader is interested in biodiversity and the history of theories of evolution, systematics, anatomy and comparative embryology. His research focuses on cnidarians and ctenophora, which include jellyfish, sea anemones and corals. He is the author and co-author of several books including Penser l'Évolution (2012) and La Classification phylogénétique du vivant (2006).

A professor of evolutionary biology at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie in Paris and the École Doctorale "Diversité du Vivant", Professor Le Guyader has also been in charge of several campaigns for marine and terrestrial biodiversity, including Santo 2006, which took place in 2006 on the island of Santo in the archipelago of Vanuatu in the western Pacific Ocean.

Hervé Le Guyader's talk will be followed by a Q&A session and a book signing.

Lecture in French.

The Montréal Space for Life is the world's first site dedicated to humanity and nature. It includes the Montréal Biodôme, Insectarium, Botanical Garden and Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium. Together, they are committed to preserving and enhancing biodiversity, and call on citizens locally and around the world to join this bold and creative urban movement.

Where: The Montréal Botanical Garden
4101 East Sherbrooke Street
Metro Pie IX
When: Wednesday, November 6, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
To purchase tickets online: www.espacepourlavie.ca/billetterie
Also on sale at the ticket counters
Admission: regular: $12 / students, Friends of the Garden, Insectarium, Biodôme, SAPM and 65 years and over: $9*
Space is limited.

*Holders of reduced-rate tickets purchased online will be required to show a valid membership card and/or photo ID at the door.

SOURCE: Espace pour la vie

For further information:

Diane Pinard, Communications Coordinator
The Montréal Space for Life
514-872-5028
[e-mail]

Nadine Fortin,Communications Coordinator
The Montréal Space for Life
514-868-3053
[e-mail]