Founders' Lecture 2026

8th October 2026. Dr Mark Wilkinson, Natural History Museum

Founders' Lecture

8th October 2026, 6:00 pm

Invited speaker: Dr Mark Wilkinson (Natural History Museum)

Caecilians and the growth of knowledge

When I was growing up what was best known about caecilian amphibians was how poorly known they were. I became fascinated by them and by this lack of knowledge. In this talk I will give a quasi-autobiographical review of caecilian biology that highlights some amazing biological discoveries and advances in caecilian systematics while reflecting on scientific progress and its problems as exemplified by caecilian biology.

In person event, free admission.

The Linnean Society on London. Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BF United Kingdom.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception (drinks venue TBC).

Registration for the event will help us gauge interest and off-site reception venue requirements:

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/bdzxt2ht

About Mark Wilkinson

Mark Wilkinson is a Researcher at the Natural History Museum, London focussing on systematics and evolution. Mark combines field and lab-based empirical work on caecilians (mainly tropical, snake-like amphibians) with more theoretical work in phylogenetics including issues in character construction, effects of missing data, and the development and evaluation of consensus and supertree methods.

Contact

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