Aristotle and marine biodiversity

Did you know that the great Greek philosopher Aristotle can also be regarded as "the father of marine biodiversity"? More than 40% of the animals he studied in his zoological works had a marine origin. In recognition of this important contribution to philosophy and science, UNESCO declared 2016 (the year of his 2400th birthday) as the "Aristotle Anniversary Year". Visit Lifewatch to learn more about how Aristotle's scientific contributions to taxonomy, ecology and species distributions link to current-day initiatives such as the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), the European Lifewatch project (featuring Belgian and Greek contributions), the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and the European node of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (EuoOBIS).