then head of zoological studies at Imperial College London, the Professor of Conservation Science, Eleanor Jane Milner-Gulland.
It was in her capacity as Director of the Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Initiative, that Milner-Gulland lead this initiative for Imperial College that brought together environmental researchers and teachers from around the world.
Milner-Gulland was born in Cuckfield, June 3 1967. Her father is Prof. Robert Rainsford Milner-Gulland. In 1993, she married Prof. Martin Stewart Williams, with whom she has a son.
Her bibliography includes:
Conservation of Biological Resources, 1998;
Wildlife Conservation and Sustainable Use: a handbook of techniques, 2007;
Animal Migration: a synthesis, 2011,
and many articles in, as they say, peer-reviewed journals.
Milner-Gulland claims the British avocations of horse riding, dog walking, languages, and travel as hers.
But enough personal detail. What about the results of the research she promoted? We quote:
'A cat is, of course, a cat. Lions are cats too, as are leopards, lynxes and so on – the “Felidae” family contains 41 species in total. But what about other closely related species such as hyenas or mongooses? These animals are not in the cat family: they are cat-like “Feliformia”, but are in their own separate families.
'So why are some species grouped together in the same families and others separated into different families? It might surprise you to learn that there is no general answer to this question, despite the fact that we now know a lot about evolutionary relationships for groups like mammals. Science has moved on and so should the way we classify life on earth.
'The science of “taxonomy” categorises species (such as Homo sapiens, in the case of humans) into broader groups such as orders (for example primates) or kingdoms (for example Animalia). Current approaches date back to 18th century Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus saw all living things as creations of god and sorted them into hierarchical groups according to how similar or different he perceived them to be.
'Evolution hadn’t even been theorised in Linnaeus’s lifetime. These days, we have a huge amount of DNA and fossil data to map out how, and when, one species branched out from another. Modern taxonomists therefore aim to base their decisions on evolutionary relationships, but the process remains subjective and there has been no attempt to standardise practises across all species on earth.
'Taxonomic groups such as birds and mammals represent “classes” under current classification systems, which are then subdivided into orders, families and genera. Our research uses the latest evolutionary trees for birds and mammals to demonstrate that current taxonomic classifications are highly inconsistent.'
These conclusions bolstered a stellar scholarly reputation. In fact in 2015 Milner-Gulland moved from Imperial College to Oxford University. Now she is Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. She has been a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, since 2015.
'A cat is, of course, a cat. Lions are cats too, as are leopards, lynxes and so on – the “Felidae” family contains 41 species in total. But what about other closely related species such as hyenas or mongooses? These animals are not in the cat family: they are cat-like “Feliformia”, but are in their own separate families.
'So why are some species grouped together in the same families and others separated into different families? It might surprise you to learn that there is no general answer to this question, despite the fact that we now know a lot about evolutionary relationships for groups like mammals. Science has moved on and so should the way we classify life on earth.
'The science of “taxonomy” categorises species (such as Homo sapiens, in the case of humans) into broader groups such as orders (for example primates) or kingdoms (for example Animalia). Current approaches date back to 18th century Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus saw all living things as creations of god and sorted them into hierarchical groups according to how similar or different he perceived them to be.
'Evolution hadn’t even been theorised in Linnaeus’s lifetime. These days, we have a huge amount of DNA and fossil data to map out how, and when, one species branched out from another. Modern taxonomists therefore aim to base their decisions on evolutionary relationships, but the process remains subjective and there has been no attempt to standardise practises across all species on earth.
'Taxonomic groups such as birds and mammals represent “classes” under current classification systems, which are then subdivided into orders, families and genera. Our research uses the latest evolutionary trees for birds and mammals to demonstrate that current taxonomic classifications are highly inconsistent.'
These conclusions bolstered a stellar scholarly reputation. In fact in 2015 Milner-Gulland moved from Imperial College to Oxford University. Now she is Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. She has been a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, since 2015.
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