04/22/2026
Inner Space Seminar: Thursday, April 30, 2026
An Introduction to Amazonian Suckermouth Catfishes and their Blood-Feeding Relatives
with Dr. Nathan K. Lujan, Associate Curator of Fishes, Royal Ontario Museum
Toplic: An Introduction to Amazonian Suckermouth Catfishes and their Blood-Feeding Relatives – With a title like that, how could you not attend ??? Wow!
When: Thursday, April 30, 2026, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Where: in person at University of Toronto’s St. George campus (University College). Room details will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
Registration: https://forms.gle/uqrqbVDSnAa6mw4b8
Deadline to register: Tuesday, April 28, 2026 before midnight.
About the talk
Freshwater ecosystems occupy less than one percent of Earth’s surface, yet are essential to human well-being and the persistence of most other species with which we share our planet. Unfortunately, freshwater biodiversity is disappearing several times faster than terrestrial or marine biodiversity due to human activities that disproportionately impact streams, rivers, and lakes. Still, conservation is hindered by the vast number of freshwater species that remain unnamed or poorly known to science, with knowledge gaps especially prevalent in the tropics. Dr. Nathan K. Lujan, the Royal Ontario Museum’s Associate Curator of Fishes’ talk titled, “An Introduction to Amazonian Suckermouth Catfishes and their Blood-Feeding Relatives” discusses the Amazonian Suckermouth Catfish or the “pleco,” an omnivorous fish often purchased for home aquaria as a bottom feeder or algae cleaner, and its common ancestry with the parasitic candiru, or “vampire fish.”
About the speaker
Dr. Nathan K. Lujan is the Associate Curator of Fishes at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lujan is an internationally recognized expert on ecology and evolution of the Amazon basin, the most biodiverse freshwater ecosystem on Earth. His research seeks to better delineate and identify species, understand how and what they eat, and map where they occur in nature and the evolutionary tree of life. To date, he has conducted over 25 expeditions to 11 countries in the Americas and Africa, yielding over 15,000 specimen lots and 10,000 genetic samples. His work has taken him to the remote river basins of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela, and he has discovered and described over 40 new fish species. This work regularly yields new insights into the ecology and evolutionary origins of threatened fish assemblages, and provided important baseline data needed to help develop conservation strategies.
Dr. Lujan has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, as well as New York Times editorials and popular articles. Nathan’s research is motivated by the urgent need to catalog, conserve, and comprehend freshwater biodiversity in the face of pervasive environmental impacts.
This event is FREE of charge. Pizza will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. All are invited to attend (you do not need to pay to be an HHUC member to attend).
Contact [email protected] if you have any questions.
Hart House Underwater Club invites you to attend our in-person Inner Space Seminar featuring Dr. Nathan K. Lujan, Associate Curator of Fishes, Royal Ontario Museum. When: Thursday, April 30, 2026, from 7-9 p.m. Where: in person at University of Toronto's St. George campus (University College). Room....
