Jorge was a PhD student at the Marine Ecology Group of Macquarie University as well as the Australian Museum Research Institute. Before coming to Australia to undertake his PhD, Jorge completed a bachelor degree in Biology at the University of Alcala de Henares and a Masters’ degree in Biodiversity at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Jorge’s research focuses on the study of marine flatworms of the Order Polycladida. Polyclad flatworms are a group of free-living invertebrates found in a diversity of marine habitats with over 800 species described worldwide. While cryptic in habit, polyclads have the potential to substantially impact on their communities as they predate on a range of invertebrates such as crustaceans, corals and molluscs, including some commercially-valuable species, such as oysters and mussels.

Despite the fact that marine flatworms comprise a conspicuous component of Australia’s marine biodiversity, they have received little attention. Less than 30 scientific articles have been published on Australian marine flatworms since the first taxonomic paper in 1855. Particularly for temperate Australia, only nine research articles have been published that include species from the south-eastern region. Jorge’s PhD project documented the taxonomy of south-east Australian polyclad flatworms in the intertidal through the use of morphological and molecular data, as well as some of their ecological aspects.

Grants & Awards

• Linnean Society of New South Wales 2019 - Joyce W Vickery Scientific Research Fund

• Field Naturalists Club of Victoria 2019 - FNCV Environment Fund

• Macquarie University 2017 - International Research Excellence Scholarship

Twitter: @DrFlatto Research Profile: Jorge Rodríguez Monter