Two American scientists and a doctoral student who embarked on a research journey to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in collaboration with the Forestry Services in search of velvet worms made an incredible find.
The velvet worm was discovered on the Vermont Nature Trail after a successful search. This velvet worm specimen is currently being researched as part of a larger study aimed at understanding the evolutionary characteristics of these organisms in the Caribbean Islands.
Professor Gonzalo Giribet, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Director of Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), lead the research team along with Professor Gustavo Hormiga, the Ruth Weintraub Professor of Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences at George Washington University in Washington, DC and a graduate student, Pooja A. Anilkumar.
This interdisciplinary team brings together experts from prestigious universities, demonstrating a dedication to furthering our understanding of velvet worms and their evolutionary relevance in the context of the Caribbean Islands.
The presence of a graduate student, Pooja A. Anilkumar, emphasises the collaborative character of the research, which fosters mentorship and contributes to the field’s overall understanding.
Onychophora, often known as velvet worms, are soft-bodied, multi-legged invertebrates that dwell in damp environments. They are all members of the same phylum and are remarkable in that they are the only animals that live entirely on land. The earliest velvet worm known to science, Peripatus juliformis from St. Vincent Island, was described as a “leg-bearing slug” by Reverend Lansdown Guilding in his Mollusca caribeana (1826).
The research can assist St. Vincent and the Grenadines, particularly given the nature of these understudied creatures. Their special ecological constraints and poor dispersion capacities have been related to locations with high biodiversity or endemism.
A complete grasp of their diversity could have significant implications for conservation and management. Identifying P. juliformis’ distributions may identify critical regions of conservation relevance.
Mr. Glenroy Gaymes, Wildlife Supervisor, and other Forestry Services personnel accompanied the team on the four-day trip.
