Bangor PhD Student has her work published in the National Geographic.
A Bangor University PhD student was one of the scientists who featured in the National Geographic recently after they identified a new species of viper.
PhD student MrinaliniMrinalini, from Bangalore, India, who has been working as part of a group of scientists led by Dr Anita Malhorta within the School of Biological Sciences at Bangor, had her work published after discovering the ruby-eyed green pit viper and another similar species with yellow eyes called the Cardamom Mountains green pit viper.
The article reported how the two new species have been identified as being separate from the big-eyed pitviper (Cryptelytrops macrops). The identification was the result of over twelve years of work in the field, detailed analysis of physical characteristics, and genetic analysis which is very important since physical characteristics can be very similar between a wide range of species.
The work was led by Dr Malhotra, in collaboration with Professor Roger Thorpe and Dr Bryan Stuart (who at the time was a PhD student at the Field Museum in Chicago, but is presently Curator of Herpetology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, USA). However, much of the genetic work was undertaken by Mrinalini.
Mrinalini said: “I grew up watching NGC and Discovery channels reading the magazines and always dreamt of being on the other side! Some of my red crab photos were published on National Geographic last year and now I also have my PhD work featured on it! It is a very exciting time for me!
About her research work, she said: “The identification of new species sometimes requires genetic evidence, especially in the case of morphologically cryptic groups such as the southeast Asian pitvipers. Using DNA fingerprinting, I could get genetic information from the entire snake genome. When I analysed this data, the results clearly showed that Cryptelytrops rubeus (the ruby-eyed pitviper) and Cryptelytrops cardamomensis (from Cardamom Mountains of southwestern Cambodia) were genetically distinct from each other and from the original type species Cryptelytrops macrops under which they had been included in the past.”
Mrinalini finished her basic education up until MSc in zoology in India and came to Bangor to do a second MSc in Ecology to improve her chances of getting into a PhD. She is now studying a PhD on the molecular evolution and systematics of southeast Asian pitvipers and is currently in her fourth year of studies.
She said: “The PhD has been a great learning process in terms of project management, problem-solving, and time management. It has, of course, also provided me with a greater understanding of my subject area.
“When I was in India, I was very specific and clear that I wanted to study snakes. I was looking at US and Australian universities initially and most of them had two-year masters programs. I had already done one in India and wasn’t too keen on spending two more years doing a second masters. Then luckily, I came across Bangor University which had a one-year masters which included a dissertation.
“Bangor was the only University I applied to - what was most important to me was that Bangor had a congregation of world-class herpetologists who were doing some great research on reptiles.
“I am keen to continue working and gaining more research experience in the field of herpetology. With an international doctoral degree I hope to eventually be able to set up collaborations with my home country which is a treasure trove of reptilian biodiversity.”
To fund her studies Mrinalini has been working part-time as research technician the Christmas Island red-crab project with Prof. Simon Webster since 2007. Prior to that she was awarded the Chuck Hollingworth Memorial Prize for her MSc thesis in 2006.
About her time in Bangor, she said: “It has been quite challenging especially being away from family and friends, but I think I am quite happy with my achievements. ”
Publication date: 7 April 2011