Pooja Avinipully Anilkumar
My PhD research focuses on the systematics and biogeography of Neotropical onychophorans as part of an NSF-funded project. I take an integrative approach to reconstruct their evolutionary history combining phylogenomics (UCE) with morphological data, revising their classification, and describing taxa using modern taxonomic methods such as Micro-CT, SEM, and light photography. Additionally, I employ various biogeographic models and phylogenetic comparative methods to understand how these organisms have dispersed and diversified over time and space, with a particular emphasis on Caribbean biogeography.
My research also extends to the systematics of Indian millipedes, where I apply COI barcoding and morphological analysis to study them. I am particularly interested in the millipede groups Pentazonia, Colobognatha, Spirobolida, and Micro-polydesmida. In the near future, I plan to reconstruct their evolutionary history using genomic data and apply these phylogenies to test hypotheses regarding the biogeographic history of the Indian Western Ghats and the Indian subcontinent. I also describe new taxa using the modern taxonomic techniques mentioned above.
Master of Science in Organismic, Evolutionary and Palaeobiology (OEP-Biology), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany, 2017 - 2021
Master of Science in Zoology, Madras Christian College (Autonomous) University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, 2015 - 2017
Bachelor of Science in Zoology, Christ College (Autonomous), University of Calicut, Thrissur, Kerala, India, 2012 - 2015
Giribet G*, Anilkumar PA, Goodwin A, Stewart RS, Watkis CA, Whyte D, Hormiga G (2025) On the troglobitic velvet worm Speleoperipatus spelaeus Peck, 1975 (Onychophora, Peripatidae): assessing the status of a Critically Endangered Jamaican invertebrate. Subterranean Biology 51: 49-59. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.51.151034
Anilkumar PA*, Wesener T, Moritz L (2022) First record of the order Polyzoniida from the Indian sub-continent with integrative description of a new genus (Diplopoda, Polyzoniida, Siphonotidae). Zootaxa 5182 (5): 401–428. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5182.5.1
Wesener T, Anilkumar PA* (2020) The millipedes collected by the Museum "La Specola" on Madagascar 1989/1991, with the description of three new species of giant pill-millipedes (Diplopoda, Sphaerotheriida, Arthrosphaeridae). In: Korsós Z, Dányi L (Eds) Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Myriapodology, Budapest, Hungary. ZooKeys 930: 3–35. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.930.47620
Anilkumar PA*, Wesener T, Moritz L* (2024) Integrative description of a new species of the genus Siphonorhinus Pocock, 1894 and first record of the family Siphonophoridae from India (Diplopoda: Siphonophorida). Integrative Systematics 7 (2): 1–21. DOI: 10.18476/2024.533955
(Bold = my name; asterisk (*) = corresponding author)