TaxoN Lab

The Laboratory of Biology of Porifera is part of the Zoology Department at the Biology Institute (IB), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Founded in 2002, it gained new facilities 20 years later, now sharing a new space with three other professors from the Zoology Department, forming the TaxoN Laboratory. Originally founded by Prof. Aloysio de Mello Leitão and later headed by Prof. Elias Pacheco Coelho, the laboratory was closed in 1985. In 1986, a group of students (Guilherme Muricy, Eduardo Hajdu, Michelle Klautau, Claudia Russo, Márcio Reis Custódio and Flávio Lobo Cordeiro) took the initiative to reopen it. In 1987, they organized a course on Porifera, taught by Professors Dr. Radovan Borojević (UFRJ), Nicole Boury-Esnault (Station Marine d'Endoume, France), Solange Peixinho (UFBA), and Antonio Solé-Cava (UFF). Over time, these students pursued postgraduate studies, leading to the closure of the laboratory once more. In 1996, Dr. Guilherme Muricy became a professor at IB and reopened the laboratory. However, two years later, he moved to the National Museum (MNRJ), and the laboratory closed again.

 

Only in 2002, with the hiring of Professor Michelle Klautau, the laboratory was reopened, operating in the underground of the Biology Institute until 2022. That year, it merged with other laboratories from the Zoology Department at IB to establish the TaxoN Laboratory, a multi-user facility dedicated to Taxonomy, now located behind the Health Sciences Center (CCS).

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LaBiPor is dedicated to the study of sponge biodiversity, evolution, ecology, and reproduction, with a particular focus on the class Calcarea. Our research employs diverse methodologies, including diving for specimen collection and observation, taxonomic identification, filming larval development, optical and electron microscopy, and molecular analyses. Our primary goal is to enhance the understanding of sponge biology and to unravel their global distribution, phylogenetic relationships, and the evolution of their morphological traits. LaBiPor studies sponges from all oceans and, for this purpose, collaborates with numerous international partners.