The Advent of PhyloCode (ePub)

Michel Laurin has been a tenured CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) research scientist since 1998. His specialty is the evolution of vertebrates from the Devonian to the Triassic. His current interests include dating the tree of life, as well as other problems such as the invasion of land by vertebrates, the appearance of the tympanum (ear drum), and origin of extant amphibians. This work has introduced new methods for paleontology and evo-devo, some of which have been implemented in computer programs. He has supervised 7 doctoral students. He has served on the governing council of various scientific societies, including the French Paleontological Association (APF), where he completed a term as President. More importantly, after adopting phylogenetic nomenclature early in his career, he served the ISPN (International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature), which develops and promotes a new code of biological nomenclature (the PhyloCode) as both Secretary (several terms, including a current one) and President. He currently serves on several editorial boards of scientific journals, including the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. In January 2011, he became Chief editor of the Comptes Rendus Palevol, which is published by the French Academy of Sciences. He has recently received the Charles Bocquet prize, which is awarded every three years by the Zoological Society of France to honor a career dedicated to evolutionary zoology. Since 2014, he has been the director of the team "Phylogeny and Diversification of Metazoans" in the National Museum of Natural History (Paris), which includes 14 tenured or emeritus scientists, in addition to post-doctoral and doctoral students.