The origin of species fascinates me, in both dimensions of space and time. The influence of geological history, such as glacial periods and the resulting opportunities of dispersal and vicariance. But also the influence of the community a species is part of.
Keywords
Biogeography, evolution, community ecology, malacology, island theory, phylogenetics
Researchinterest
As a PhD student, I work on the community assembly of Bornean microsnails. These tiny snails live in large communities on limestone outcrops in the tropical lowlands. How did they get together? How do they evolve?
In Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, tens of limestone hills are found, separated from each other by miles of primary lowland rainforest. On these calcareous hills live tens of microsnail species, many being obligate calcicoles and as such confined to these hills. For them the hills appear as discrete “islands”, separated by a “sea” of primary rainforest that is next to impossible to cross. For me as a scientist, this is an ideal situation. Every limestone hill offers a new community of microsnails, waiting to be studied.
Keypublications
- Hendriks, K.P., Alciatore, G., Schilthuizen, M., Etienne, R.S. 2019. Phylogeography of Bornean land snails suggests long-distance dispersal as a cause of endemism. Journal of Biogeography.
- Merckx V.S.F.T., Hendriks K.P., Beentjes K.K., Mennes C.B., Becking L.E., Peijnenburg K.T.C.A., Afendy A., Arumugam N., de Boer H., Biun A., Buang M.M., Chen P.-P., Chung A.Y.C., Dow R., Feijen F.A.A., Feijen H., Feijen-van Soest C, Geml J., Geurts R., Gravendeel B., Hovenkamp P., Imbun P., Ipor I., Janssens S.B., Jocqué M. Kappes H., Khoo E., Koomen P., Lens F., Majapun R.J., Morgado L.N., Neupane S., Nieser N., Pereira J.T., Rahman H., Sabran S., Sawang A., Schwallier R.M., Shim P.-S., Smit H., Sol N., Spait M., Stech M., Stokvis F., Sugau J.B., Suleiman M., Sumail S., Thomas D.C., van Tol J., Tuh F.Y.Y., Yahya B.E., Nais J., Repin R., Lakim M. & Schilthuizen M. 2015. Evolution of endemism on a young tropical mountain. Nature 524: 347-350.
- Khalik, M. Z., Hendriks, K. P., Vermeulen, J. J., Schilthuizen, M. 2019. Conchological and molecular analysis of the “non-scaly” Bornean Georissa with descriptions of three new species (Gastropoda, Neritimorpha, Hydrocenidae). ZooKeys 840: 35.
- Khalik, M. Z., Hendriks, K.P., Vermeulen, J. J., Schilthuizen, M. 2018. A molecular and conchological dissection of the “scaly” Georissa of Malaysian Borneo (Gastropoda, Neritimorpha, Hydrocenidae). ZooKeys 773: 1.
- Njunjić I., Perrard A., Hendriks K.P., Schilthuizen M., Perreau M., Merckx V.S.F.T., Baylac M., Derharveng L. 2018. Comprehensive evolutionary analysis of the Anthroherpon radiation (Coleoptera, Leiodidae, Leptodirini). PLOS ONE 13: e0198367.
- Njunjić, I., Perreau, M., Hendriks, K.P., Schilthuizen, M., Deharveng, L. 2016. The cave beetle genus Anthroherpon is polyphyletic; molecular phylogenetics and description of Graciliella n. gen. (Leiodidae, Leptodirini). Contr. Zool 85: 339-361.
Teachingactivities
I am actively involved in the supervision of international master students.
I have travelled to Borneo with students various times, teaching about evolution and fieldwork in the tropics.
In themedia
In 2012, I joined a large expedition to Mount Kinabalu & the Crocker Range on Borneo. The aim of the expedition, jointly organized by Naturalis and Sabah Parks, was to collect species new to science, and to reconstruct the general evolutionary patterns of plants and animals on the slopes of the mountain. The expedition was widely covered in the international media, such as Science, National Geographic, and various newspapers, and resulted in a letter in Nature.
