Origin of jaws - the greatest unsolved mystery of early vertebrate evolution. The 2008 discovery of an unborn embryo in the 380 million-year-old "Mother Fish" from the famous Gogo fossil deposit in NW Australia has attracted a collaboration of Australian, American and Chinese scientists to a new international collaboration. The team will study spectacular new fossils from central Australia and southern China, the oldest known back-boned animals with jaws and a hard skeleton. Innovative 3D X-ray ....Origin of jaws - the greatest unsolved mystery of early vertebrate evolution. The 2008 discovery of an unborn embryo in the 380 million-year-old "Mother Fish" from the famous Gogo fossil deposit in NW Australia has attracted a collaboration of Australian, American and Chinese scientists to a new international collaboration. The team will study spectacular new fossils from central Australia and southern China, the oldest known back-boned animals with jaws and a hard skeleton. Innovative 3D X-ray computer tomography, and the Australian synchrotron, will be used to investigate ancient cells and preserved soft tissue structures, to search for evidence that copulation and internal fertilization, as in modern mammals, might have originated when jaws first evolved. Read moreRead less
Conservation biology of the largest Australian freshwater tortoise, the broad-shelled tortoise, Chelodina expansa - rare and endangered or cryptic and secure? The Murray is a highly managed river, with flows controlled by catchments and diversions. The combined impacts of water resource development, habitat modification and introduced species are astonishingly diverse, and include extinctions of some fish and invertebrates and depression of populations of many other species. Australia's largest ....Conservation biology of the largest Australian freshwater tortoise, the broad-shelled tortoise, Chelodina expansa - rare and endangered or cryptic and secure? The Murray is a highly managed river, with flows controlled by catchments and diversions. The combined impacts of water resource development, habitat modification and introduced species are astonishingly diverse, and include extinctions of some fish and invertebrates and depression of populations of many other species. Australia's largest chelid turtle, the broad-shelled turtle, is a high-level consumer thought to be particularly sensitive to these changes. We will use an innovative combination of non-destructive technologies to investigate the conservation biology of this species in the Lower Murray, where it is regarded as rare and where its biology is virtually unknown to inform conservation management and restoration initiativesRead moreRead less
Using genetics to reconstruct the peopling and diversification of Sahul. A recent landmark study has revealed that people who first arrived on Sahul (the landmass connecting Australia with New Guinea) remained largely genetically isolated from subsequent migrations. However, there is still little known about the route(s) taken into Sahul, or how adaptation has shaped the enormous diversity now observed across Indigenous Australians and Papuans. This project aims to look at these issues by applyi ....Using genetics to reconstruct the peopling and diversification of Sahul. A recent landmark study has revealed that people who first arrived on Sahul (the landmass connecting Australia with New Guinea) remained largely genetically isolated from subsequent migrations. However, there is still little known about the route(s) taken into Sahul, or how adaptation has shaped the enormous diversity now observed across Indigenous Australians and Papuans. This project aims to look at these issues by applying phylogenetic and population genetic tools to the largest genetic dataset yet analysed from populations across Australia, New Guinea, and Island South East Asia. The outcomes of the project should reveal both the route(s) taken into Sahul and how adaptation has shaped the diversity now observed in descendants of the colonisation.Read moreRead less
Tracking the development of agricultural lifestyles in island Southeast Asia through modern and prehistoric rodent communities. The emergence of agriculture, a key transformational event in human history, seems to have occurred significantly later in island SE Asia than surrounding regions. However, the early stages of agriculture may be archaeologically ‘invisible’ in the tropics due to simple material culture and housing. This project proposes to use the recent evolutionary history of agricult ....Tracking the development of agricultural lifestyles in island Southeast Asia through modern and prehistoric rodent communities. The emergence of agriculture, a key transformational event in human history, seems to have occurred significantly later in island SE Asia than surrounding regions. However, the early stages of agriculture may be archaeologically ‘invisible’ in the tropics due to simple material culture and housing. This project proposes to use the recent evolutionary history of agricultural rodent pests, all of which emerged in situ from among a native rodent fauna, as a proxy for the origins and spread of agriculture, and its subsequent intensification. This project will use phylogeography and population genetics to infer the history of contemporary rodent populations, combined with archaeozoological and ancient DNA analyses of prehistoric samples to test our inferences.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing the impact of climate change on Australian native species. This project will explore the impact of past climate change on Australian native animals to identify species and ecosystems at greatest potential risk, and to help predict and minimise the effects of future change.
Phylogenomic assessment of conservation priorities in two biodiversity hotspots: the Pilbara and the Kimberley. This project applies new sequencing and analytical methods to measure how much unique genetic diversity is represented in current and planned reserves across two biodiversity hotspots – the Pilbara and Kimberley of north-west Australia. It combines university, museum and conservation agency researchers to improve ongoing conservation planning.
Evolutionary origins of sexual parasitism in an Australian freshwater fish. Carp gudgeons are the most abundant, widespread and biodiverse freshwater fishes in southeastern Australia. The unacknowledged presence of many cryptic species and sexually-parasitic lineages severely taints all research on this cornerstone group. This project aims to provide unrivalled evolutionary, genomic, and taxonomic insights into this new instance of vertebrate sexual parasitism, which offers a unique mix of resea ....Evolutionary origins of sexual parasitism in an Australian freshwater fish. Carp gudgeons are the most abundant, widespread and biodiverse freshwater fishes in southeastern Australia. The unacknowledged presence of many cryptic species and sexually-parasitic lineages severely taints all research on this cornerstone group. This project aims to provide unrivalled evolutionary, genomic, and taxonomic insights into this new instance of vertebrate sexual parasitism, which offers a unique mix of research advantages not displayed by any other sexual/unisexual complex. The knowledge gained could impact many research fields, including evolutionary theory addressing the unexplainable prevalence of sex, native fish ecology, and environmental monitoring of the Murray-Darling Basin, an ecosystem of world significance.Read moreRead less
Diversification and conservation of Australian frogs. Australia's 216 known species of frogs are exceptionally diverse, 98 per cent are found nowhere else in the world and many of them are in trouble. This project will test ideas concerning the tempo of Australian frog diversification, identify previously cryptic new species and provide information critical to the conservation of Australia's declining frogs.