We are pleased to announce the 1-day Taxonomic Satellite Symposium (TSS), held immediately after the XVI ISFB. All interested ISFB participants are most welcome to register for the TSS.
The Taxonomic Satellite Symposium has two main aims.
First, it will offer taxonomically-oriented flatworm researchers guided access to the type and reference materials of the research groups of Peter Ax and colleagues, consisting of >1100 inventoried accessions (a list of available accessions can be obtained from the organiser, see below). This extensive collection is housed at the Zoological collection of the Biodiversitätsmuseum in Göttingen (ZMUG), and will be made available to the registered participants for on-site study in a practical room equipped with microscopes at the University. This will showcase the scope, organisation, and scientific value of the ZMUG collection, and it is intended to facilitate future research visits to, or loans of the materials in, this collection.
Second, the symposium will provide a forum to discuss some key taxonomic challenges in free-living flatworms and to explore how the ZMUG collection may help resolve them. This includes cases in which the original taxonomic works did not specify any type material (mandatory since 2000). Some cases could potentially be resolved by examining specimens in the ZMUG collection.
Date: Saturday 5th of September 2026.
Venue: Campus Georg August University, Heinrich-Düker-Weg, Göttingen.
Organizer: Lukas Schärer, University of Basel, Switzerland (lukas.scharer@unibas.ch).
Curator of the Biodiversity Museum: Maria Teresa Aguado Molina, Animal Evolution & Biodiversity, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology & Anthropology, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany.