Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen (born 1948) is a Danish

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

, noted for the discovery of three new

phyla Phyla, the plural of ''phylum'', may refer to: * Phylum, a biological taxon between Kingdom and Class * by analogy, in linguistics, a large division of possibly related languages, or a major language family which is not subordinate to another Phy ...

of microscopic animals: the

Loricifera Loricifera (from Latin, ''wikt:lorica, lorica'', corselet (armour) + ''ferre'', to bear) is a phylum of very small to microscopic marine cycloneuralian sediment-dwelling animals with 43 described species and approximately 100 more that hav ...

in 1983, the

Cycliophora ''Symbion'' is a genus of commensal aquatic animals, less than 0.5 mm wide, found living attached to the mouthparts of cold-water lobsters. They have sac-like bodies, and three distinctly different forms in different parts of their two-sta ...

in 1995, and the

Micrognathozoa ''Limnognathia'' is a genus of microscopic acoelomate freshwater animal that was discovered in Disko Island, Greenland, in 1994. Since then, it has also been found on the Crozet Islands of Antarctica as well as in the British Isles and the Sp ...

in 2000. He is also considered one of the world's leading experts on

tardigrades Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged Segmentation (biology), segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who calle ...

. His recent field of work revolves mostly around

arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

biology. He is also known for documenting '' Dendrogramma'', an invertebrate genus that was later classified as

Siphonophorae Siphonophorae (from Ancient Greek σίφων (siphōn), meaning "tube" and -φόρος (-phóros), meaning "bearing") is an order within Hydrozoa, a class of marine organisms within the phylum Cnidaria. According to the World Register of Marin ...

of the family

Rhodaliidae Rhodaliidae is a family of siphonophores. In Japanese they are called ().Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. (2009 onwards). Biological Information System for Marine Life (BISMaL). Accessed on 2018-11-21. available online at h ...

Loricifera

Kristensen collected the first members of the

phylum in

Roscoff Roscoff ( , ; ) is a commune in the Finistère département of Brittany in northwestern France. Roscoff is renowned for its picturesque architecture, labelled (small town of character) since 2009. Roscoff is also a traditional departure point ...

, France, in 1970, but did not describe it until 1983.Heiner, I. 2005. Preliminary account of the loriciferan fauna of the Faroe Bank (NE Atlantic). Biofar Proceedings 2005: 213–219.

Cycliophora

Kristensen and

Peter Funch Peter Funch (born 1965) is a Danish zoologist. A member of Aarhus University Research on the Anthropocene, he studies microscopic organisms and arthropods. He works in arctic biology, researching in Greenland. Discoveries In 1995, along with Re ...

described ''

Symbion pandora ''Symbion pandora'' is a jug-shaped microscopic aquatic animal that dwells on the mouth-parts of Norway lobsters. The animals are less than ½ mm wide, with sac-like bodies, and three distinctly different forms in different parts of their ...

'', on the mouth-parts of Norwegian

lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

s, in 1995; other species were later found on other types of lobsters.

Micrognathozoa

Kristensen described '' Limnognathia maerski'', the first (and so far only) known species in the group, in a cold spring on

Disko Island Disko Island (, ) is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of ,Abstract

References

External links

Danish zoologists 1948 births Place of birth missing (living people) Living people {{Denmark-scientist-stub