Acknowledgements 6AcknowledgementsI am heavily indebted to my principal supervisor Andreas Wanninger for more thanthree years of support, guidance, education, motivation, and invaluable help. Hisoverall excitement for evolution, invertebrates, science, and finally life had thegreatest impact on me. Thank you Andi!Gratefully acknowledged is also my co-supervisor Pedro Martinez for a greattime in his lab in Barcelona. Many thanks are going to his lab members JohannesAchatz, Alex Alsen, Eduardo Moreno, Elena Perea, and especially to Marta Chiodinwho introduced me to molecular techniques as well as to the city of Barcelona.Furthermore, I am grateful to José María Martín-Durán from the “planarian group”also from the University of Barcelona for helping me establishing an in situ protocolfor my animals.I thank Prof. Dr. Danny Eibye-Jacobsen that he agreed to act as the head ofmy defence committee at the University of Copenhagen, as well as Prof. Dr. StefanRichter and Prof. Dr. Anja Schulze for kindly reviewing this <strong>thesis</strong>.Thanks to the working group for Comparative Zoology for a wonderful time inCopenhagen. All these years of the <strong>PhD</strong> project would not be the same without thesemembers and associates. Therefore, special thanks are going to my friends TimWollesen, Uwe Spremberg, Judith Fuchs, and my crazy office mate Jan Bielecki.Special thanks are also going to Anders Garm who helped me with the Danishabstract. Thanks man! In addition, I would like to thank Dany “Sahne” Zemeitat,Ricardo Neves, Nora Brinkmann, Lennie Rotvit, Andreas Altenburger, Birgit Meyer,Henrike Semmler, Christopher Grubb, Tommy Kristensen, Jens Høgh, LisbethHaukrogh, and Åse Jaspersen.A huge thank-you goes to Christiane Todt (University of Bergen, Norway) forhosting and taking care of me during my visit at the Marine Station of Bergen. Inaddition, I want to thank Anastassia S. Maiorova (Marine Biology <strong>Institut</strong>e,Vladivostok, Russia) for being helpful, reliable, and fun to work with during my timeat the Vostok Station. I am grateful to Andrey V. Adrianov (Marine Biology <strong>Institut</strong>e,Vladivostok, Russia) and the staff of the Vostok Station for their help and hospitality.For comments, important discussions and collaboration, I highly acknowledgeMary Rice (Smithsonian Research Center, Florida, USA) and Katrine Worsaae(University of Copenhagen, Denmark).
7 AcknowledgmentsI am deeply grateful for the never ending support from my family, in particularmy parents. Za sve što ste napravili da krenem ovim uspješnim putem, jednostavno sezahvaljulem vama tisuču puta. Puno hvala mama! Puno hvala tata i puno hvala momburazu Jožefu!Finally, thousand thanks to my lovely girlfriend Maria Eracleous for being theone. Maria mou, ise i zoi mou! Also, I want to thank all members of her family,especially Despina, Iraclis, and Georgia for treating me as one of them.For financial support I would like to thank Friday Harbor Laboratories,Washington, USA, the European Research Council (MEST-CT-2005-020542), andthe Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.