Born in Treviso, 20 December 1948. Full professor of Zoology, retired.
Served as president of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, vice-president of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology and president of the Scientific Committee for the Fauna d’Italia.
Launched and edited the Checklist della fauna italiana. Former section editor for arthropods of Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research; currently or formerly editorial board member of Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Evolution & Development, Frontiers in Evolutionary Developmental Biology; Theories in Biosciences, Zoologischer Anzeiger, Zoosystema, Zootaxa, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift.
Active for years in zoological systematics and phylogenetics, of myriapods especially, moved later to the evolutionary biology of development. In this context, he advocates the need for a close integration between the contributions of developmental genetics and comparative morphology and embryology: this has inspired his studies on the segmental organization of arthropods.
Member of the National Academy of Sciences called Academy of the XL; Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.
Sherborn Award (International Trust for the Zoological Nomenclature, 2008); Medal for the Physical and Natural Sciences (Academy of the XL, 2002); Ferrari-Soave Award for Animal Biology (Academy of Sciences in Turin, 2005).

Minelli A. (2003) The Development of Animal Form. Cambridge University.

Minelli A. (2009) Perspectives in Animal Phylogeny and Evolution. Oxford University Press.

Minelli A. (2009) Forms of Becoming. Princeton University Press.

Minelli A. (2018) Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Cambridge University Press.

Fusco G. & Minelli A. (2019) The Biology of Reproduction. Cambridge University Press.