Christoffer Schander

Christoffer Schander

Carl Fredrik Christoffer Schander (1960 – February 20, 2012) was a professor in marine biology at the University of Bergen, Norway. He was also a thematic leader at the Centre of Excellence in Geobiology. His doctoral thesis (1997), from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, treated the evolutionary relationships of the parasitic marine gastropod family Pyramidellidae. He worked on marine invertebrates, mainly molluscs, and has published more than 90 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, whereof 76 are indexed in Web of Knowledge. Fourteen of them have been cited ten times or more.

According to his web page, the goal of his research was to understand the role that evolutionary forces and phylogeny have played in creating organismal diversity. To develop this understanding, he used phylogenetic analyses that integrated morphological, ultrastructural and molecular data. His research focused on the molluscs, because of the amazing morphological diversity of recent taxa, and because of their fossil record dating back to the Precambrian. More specifically, his research focused on the ectoparasitic pyramidellid gastropods and the, shell-less, primary deep-sea aplacophorans. He was also interested in the biogeography of these animals, and were also studying the relationship between the molluscs and other animal groups, and the population genetics of several organisms.

In addition to taxonomy and systematics, he also published several papers on the use of formalin fixed tissue for molecular studies. He was also active in the DNA barcoding community.

The World Register of Marine Species mentions 33 new gastropod species named by Schander