Australian Museum
News Stories

Dr Robin Torrence, Senior Fellow in Archaeology and Geosciences at the Australian Museum, is a giant in her field. Over the last 35 years, Robin has impacted so many – including the 32 authors who have contributed to the recent special edition of the Technical Records of the AM!

An international team of palaeontologists, led by AMRI and UNSW’s Dr Matthew McCurry, shed light on why whales and dolphins have such large brains – with the help of Baleen Whale fossils.

We rank Australia’s frog species based on how likely they are to persist in human modified habitats – with some surprising results!

Wayne Brennan, a 2020-21 AMF/AMRI Visiting Research Fellow, discusses how scientists and Aboriginal communities work together on the Rock Art Recovery Project - two ways walking together side by side.

After a controversial beginning, the Australian Museum Magazine has reached 100 years of continuous publication, with the historic latest issue a timely fit for the milestone.

Each month, a selected blog from Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation will be featured at the AM. For this inaugural month, we feature the 2021 Coral bleaching at Lizard Island blog, by Dr Anne Hoggett.

As a result of the new film on Netflix, The Dig, there has been renewed interest in the Anglo-Saxon ship burial site, Sutton Hoo. We have found a surprising link between the 1400-year-old Sutton Hoo burial, the Australian Museum, and a WWII war hero.

Last month, Dr Chris Reid and Aidan Runagall-McNaull arrived in Northeast NSW to determine the impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires on dung beetle populations. Now nearing the end of their fieldwork, there is some good news to report.

How was the Australian Keelback snake (Tropidonophis mairii) named? A historical investigation has led to the identification of where the snake came from – but with a twist.

An international team from Vietnam, the UK and Australia set off on a mission to find Critically Endangered frog species in the Hoang Lien Range in northern Vietnam – and on the way, they found a species new to science!

The recent passing of Chief Jerry Taki Uminduru, (1942- 2021) a Vanuatu Cultural Centre Fieldworker from southern Erromango Island, has brought great sadness to everyone who had the privilege of knowing and working with him.

A recently published international study including 30 authors from 19 institutions, led by the Australian Museum, has indicated that over 50 new species of marine worm from the eastern Australian abyss await to be described and named.

All is not lost for an endangered population of frogs – the Tusked frog (Adelotus brevis) of the New England Tablelands and Nandewar regions has been rediscovered after fears of their extinction.

Today is a significant day for the Australian Museum. On this International Women’s Day, the AM has announced the first Indigenous appointment to the AM’s executive leadership team, as we welcome Laura McBride as Director, First Nations.

Dung beetles may not be the first animals to come to mind when thinking about the organisms impacted by the 2019-20 intense bushfires - but perhaps they should. We were recently in Northeast NSW to determine the impacts on dung beetle populations.