A two-day national seminar on ‘Invertebrate Taxonomy’ began at the Department of Zoology at M S University’s Faculty of Science on Wednesday. The seminar, ‘Capacity Building for Taxonomic Research’, is open to the general public along with researchers and zoology students.

This is for the first time that the department is organising a super specialised workshop on taxonomy. Over 40 specialists in taxonomy are attending the seminar.

“Taxonomy is a very important field, but knowledge is restricted to the school level. We are inviting biology teachers who would be helpful for the students as well,” said Dolly Kumar, reader at the Zoology department and the convenor of the seminar.

On the first day, the seminar had delegates, including Vinod Mathur, faculty dean of Wildlife Sciences, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

“Wildlife needs a lot of attention as some of the species are on the verge of extinction. There are other species like the blue bull that is found in abundance in Gujarat. There is a need to create balance and protect both endangered and abundant species,” said Mathur.

The seminar focused on the taxonomy of eight species of invertebrates, including marine planktons, crabs, corals, termites, beetles, butterflies, ants and spiders.