Alessandro Minelli (biologist)

Alessandro Minelli (born 20 December 1948) is an Italian biologist, formerly professor of zoology in the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences of the University of Padova mainly working on evo-devo subjects.

Alessandro Minelli
Born (1948-12-20) 20 December 1948
Treviso, Italy
Alma materUniversity of Padova 1966–1970
Known forEvo-devo
Scientific career
FieldsZoology, evo-devo
InstitutionsUniversity of Padova

Biography

Alessandro Minelli studied Natural Sciences at the University of Padova 1966–70 with a master's degree in 1970. From 1987 to 2011, Minelli was a Full Professor of Zoology at the University of Padova.

Activity in international organisations
  • International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (member since 1989, president 1995–2001)
  • European Society for Evolutionary Biology (vice-president 1997–99)
  • Editorial activity in several zoological journals.

Academic memberships
  • Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze, detta dei LX
  • Accademia Nazionale Italiana di Entomologia
  • Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti
  • Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere
  • Accademia Olimpica
  • Ateneo di Treviso
  • Honorary Fellow of the Accademia Gioenia di Catania.[1]
  • Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London.[2]

Scientific contributions

Minelli is known for his studies in evolutionary developmental biology, or evo-devo. His main contributions are about the conceptual foundations of this discipline.[3][4][5][6][7] In his search for an intellectual framework common to evolutionary biology and developmental biology, he has strongly argued against the widespread adultocentrism,[3] 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 is based on revisiting 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 of a factorial or combinatorial concept of homology.[8]

Minelli has introduced new concepts, such as axis paramorphism[9] (useful for understanding the evolutionary relationships between the main axis of the body and its appendages) and those of eosegment and merosegment,[10] through which he suggests a radical revisitation of the architecture of the body of segmented animals.[11][12][13] Minelli has also explored the implication of evo-devo for biological systematics,[14][15] speciation[16] and the evolution of life cycles.[17][18]

Publications

Books
  • Minelli A. – Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2018).
  • Minelli A. – Perspectives in Animal Phylogeny and Evolution. xiii+345 pp. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Jan. 2009)
  • Minelli A. – Forms of Becoming. 242 pp. Princeton: Princeton University Press (April 2009). [Italian: Forme del divenire. xiii+218 pp. Einaudi, Torino (2007)]
  • Minelli A. & Fusco G. (eds.) Evolving Pathways. Key Themes in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. xviii+426 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2008).
  • Minelli A., Ortalli G. & Sanga G. (eds.) – Animal Names. Venezia: Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti. ix+574 pp. (2005).
  • Minelli A. – Evo-Devo. 109 pp. Roma: Nuova Argos (2004).
  • Minelli A. – The Development of Animal Form. Cambridge-New York, Cambridge University Press (2003).[19]

Awards
  • Golden Medal 2002 for the Physical and Natural Sciences awarded by the Italian Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL
  • Ferrari-Soave Prize 2005 (Animal Biology) awarded by the Accademia delle Scienze, Turin, Italy
  • Sherborn Award 2008 for outstanding service to biodiversity informatics

References
  1. "List of members of the Accademia Gioenia di Catania".
  2. "A. MInelli CV". Archived from the original on 2012-12-27. Retrieved 2013-03-30.
  3. <Minelli, A. (2003), The Development of Animal Form, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. <Minelli, A. (2009), Perspectives in Animal Phylogeny and Evolution, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  5. <Minelli, A. (2010), “Evolutionary developmental biology does not offer a significant challenge to the neoDarwinian paradigm,” pp. 213–226 in Ayala F.J. & Arp R. (eds.) Contemporary debates in Philosophy of Biology, Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell.
  6. <Minelli, A. (2011), Minelli, A. “Development, an open-ended segment of life.” Biological Theory 6 (1): 4–15.
  7. <Minelli, A. (2011), “A principle of developmental inertia,” pp. 116–133 in B. Hallgrímsson and B.K. Hall (eds.) Epigenetics: Linking genotype and phenotype in development and evolution, Berkeley-Los Angeles- London, University of California Press.
  8. <Minelli A. (1998), "Molecules, developmental modules and phenotypes: A combinatorial approach to homology." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 9 (3): 340–347.
  9. <Minelli A. (2000), “Limbs and tail as evolutionarily diverging duplicates of the main body axis.” Evolution & Development 2 (3): 157–165.
  10. <Minelli A. (2000), “Holomeric vs. meromeric segmentation: A tale of centipedes, leeches, and rhombomeres.” Evolution & Development 2 (1): 35–48.
  11. <Minelli A. (2001), “A three-phase model of arthropod segmentation.” Development, Genes and Evolution 211 (10): 509-521.
  12. <Minelli A. & Fusco Giuseppe (2004), “Evo-devo perspectives on segmentation: model organisms, and beyond.” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19 (8): 423–429.
  13. <Hughes Nigel C., Minelli A. & Fusco G. (2006), “The ontogeny of trilobite segmentation: a comparative approach.” Paleobiology 32 (4): 603–628.
  14. <Minelli A. (2007), “Invertebrate taxonomy and evolutionary developmental biology.” Zootaxa 1668: 55–60 (2007)
  15. <Minelli, A. (2009), “Phylo-evo-devo: combining phylogenetics with evolutionary developmental biology.” BMC Biology 7:36; doi 10.1186/1741-7007-7-36
  16. <Minelli A. & Fusco G. (2012), “On the evolutionary developmental biology of speciation.” Evolutionary Biology 39 (2): 242–254; doi 10.1007/s11692-012-9175-6.
  17. < Minelli A., Brena Carlo, Deflorian Gianluca, Maruzzo Diego & Fusco G. (2006), “From embryo to adult. beyond the conventional periodization of arthropod development.” Development Genes and Evolution 216 (7-8): 373–383
  18. <Minelli A. & Fusco G. (2010), “Developmental plasticity and the evolution of animal complex life cycles.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 365 (140): 631–640, doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0268.
  19. "A. Minelli CV". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
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