Jørgen Olesen

Primary fields of research

Teaching

• Main responsible for the course: Marine invertebrater: morfologi, biologi, evolution
• Teach on the course: Marin faunistik: Marine fisks og invertebraters diversitet og biologi

Introductory remarks on publicationslist

Current research

• I am an evolutionary zoologist focusing on the diversity and classification of Crustacea, a diverse group of mainly marine arthropods, but with both limnic and terrestrial representatives. I also curate the large museum collection of Crustacea. My research interests ranges from species level taxonomy of Laevicaudata, a small group of freshwater crustaceans, to higher level phylogeny of various crustacean groups. I am interested in a large range of crustacean taxa such as branchiopods from inland temporary water bodies, remipedes and thermosbaenaceans from anchialine caves, raptorial cladocerans from the Caspian Lake, and many others. I mainly work with morphology as a basis for phylogeny, but also include molecular data. I have a particular focus on obscure, microscopic taxa and their larvae, about which little are still known. I also work on various important Cambrian fossil taxa on a collaborative basis. One of my overall goals is to contribute bringing our understanding of crustacean evolution and phylogeny to a higher level, not least with respect to how various key characters such as the evolutionary crucial ‘arthropod limbs’ have evolved in different crustacean linages.