Systematics and species delimitation

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Identifying species is the first step for any study in biology. Delimiting species boundaries is not only important from a conservation point of view but also helps to address interesting questions pertaining to biogeography, phylogeography, speciation and diversification, population genetics, adaptation, and many other areas of evolutionary biology. Since a large proportion of biodiversity is unexplored/undocumented, systematics and species delimitation becomes an integral part of most studies. As a part of my Ph.D. work, I  studied systematics of the Himalayan langur (Primate: Colobinae) using multiple lines of evidence i.e. genetic, morphological, and ecological data; to delimit species in this group. This work established that the Himalayan population is a species distinct from the plains' langurs (Semnopithecus entellus). Further, this work is the culmination of 25-years of research to address the century-old problem of "How many species constitute the Hanuman langur group?" At the end, we find that there are four species within the Hanuman langur group - Semnopithecus schistaceus in the Himalayas; S. entellus in the northern plains; S. hypoleucos in the western ghats; and S. priam in dry zones of southern India and Sri Lanka.

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