Group Committee
We the AIMG Group Committee are a dedicated group of amateurs and professionals who share a passion for promoting research, education, and awareness in the field of invertebrate biology, with a specific focus on isopods and myriapods. Our committee is composed of highly experienced and knowledgeable individuals who work collaboratively to support our mission and vision. We strive to foster a supportive community of professionals and amateurs who are enthusiastic about invertebrate biology, and we encourage engagement and participation from all individuals who share our interests. As a committee, we are committed to providing a variety of services to our members and the broader community, including specimen identification, ecological and agricultural risk assessments, literature searches, and mentorship opportunities for aspiring researchers. We are also dedicated to organizing educational events and conferences to further promote invertebrate biology research and education. We invite you to explore our website and to reach out to us with any questions or inquiries you may have. Thank you for your interest in our committee, and we look forward to connecting with you!
Nathan Jones
General Manager, Lead Editor,
Co-founder
Nathan is a home-schooled high school student through Bridgeway Academy. His future career goals include; genetics, ecology, behavior, and taxonomy with a emphasis on understudied topics such as ocelli morphology and function, reproductive behavior, and arthropod spatial cognition.
He is one of the group's seven co-founders. He manages and maintains all social media accounts for the AIMG and is the lead editor for all publications. When he is not working on the betterment of the AIMG you will find him on iNaturalist where he has contributed over 61,000 identifications, 46,000 of Isopoda identifications. He is one of the only active Isopoda curators helping keep iNaturalist's taxonomic data up to date. Nathan also assists Dr. Carlos and the APHIS team with many aspects of the huge trade of isopods. Including working on a revision of the terrestrial Isopoda distribution in the contiguous United States, and adding more species to their current list.
Oonagh Degenhardt
Lead Artist, Co-founder
Oonagh is a home-schooled high school student. Her future career goals include genetics, ecology, and biology.
Being raised by biologists she has been exposed to science and field work her entire life and she is often out in the field looking for and photographing herps and inverts with the occasional bird. She has experience with field collection, genomic diet studies, animal husbandry, species identification, animal photography, and color genetics.
She is one of the group's six co-founders. She is a moderator on the group's discord server and the primary artist for the group.
Benedikt Kästle
Co-founder
Benedikt is currently studying Pre- and Early History at the University of Tübingen and works as an academic assistant in the working group Terrestrial Paleoclimatology of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironments. He is currently involved in research projects on Sauropodomorphs from Southern Germany.
Since 2022 he is part of the expert team for terrestrial isopods at the Red List Centre of Germany (Rote-Liste-Zentrum). He has experience with phylogenetic analysis, Micro-CT scanning, mapping, morphology, species identification and macro photography. His interests are especially in morphology and taxonomy.
Sequoia Wrens
Lead Isopod Taxonomist, Co-founder
Sequoia is a recent graduate from SUNY-ESF. Her future career goals include taxonomy and field study, mainly of Isopods. She is currently working on a global isopod synthesis collecting information on taxonomy, ecology and morphology of all known isopods.