Profile: Lorenzo Prendini

Dr. Lorenzo Prendini’s research interests lie in the empirical study of phylogeny, macroevolution, speciation, biogeography, and comparative evolutionary biology, using scorpions as model organisms. Research focuses on phylogenetic revisions of the world scorpion fauna, using morphology, behavior and DNA. Dr. Prendini is presently revising and atlasing the Afrotropical scorpion fauna and testing adaptational and biogeographical hypotheses in the sub-Saharan region. Besides arachnids, he is interested in the evolution of insect-plant associations. Fieldwork has taken Dr. Prendini and his research group to Argentina, Benin, Kazakhstan, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, and the Virgin Islands, among other places.