Dr. Almir Pepato

Federal University of Minas Gerais, Departamento de Zoologia
Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Dr. Almir Pepato is in a long-term collaboration with Dr. Pavel Klimov. Their research aims to infer the evolutionary past of marine mites by using molecular biology to target and infer biographical patterns of coastal regions around the globe. Among other marine groups, mites belonging to the family Halacaridae are relevant because they represent an ancient lineage of secondary marine animals with many examples of independent adaptation to freshwater milieu by marine ancestors. They may be the ideal model for a better understanding of regional biogeography due to their lack of dispersive stages, or planctonic larvae, that concur in blurring those patterns in other animal groups. Pepato and Klimov have also published collaborative papers on general mite phylogeny.