A New Genus and Five New Species of Pseudoscorpion with Catalina Romero-Ortiz

Dr. Catalina Romero-Ortiz has been fascinated by pseudoscorpions for over a decade, and she wants everyone to understand how amazing they are. But beyond its inherent scientific value, Catalina wants to share the importance of taxonomy in and out of the lab. She says, “As scientists, all of us are called to- there are some things that don’t work, you know? I think we [hold] in our shoulders much of the social responsibility… we are agents of change. And we need it.”

In this episode, Catalina speaks with conviction about the role taxonomy plays in changing the world for the better. She and her coauthors name their new genus using the prefix ‘pax,’ meaning peace, to commemorate the Havana Peace Talks in 2012 which brought together participants in Colombia’s civil war with the goal of uniting towards a more peaceful future.

Catalina Romero-Ortiz’s paper “A new genus and five new species of pseudoscorpions from Colombia” is in issue 1184 of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1184.106698

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Catalina Romero-Ortiz - Transcript

New Species: Cystowithius florezi, Parawithius bromelicola, Oligowithius achagua, Paciwithius valduparensis, Paciwithius chimbilacus

Episode image courtesy of Catalina Romero-Ortiz

Visit Catalina’s ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Catalina-Romero-Ortiz

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