• Drought, dung and destruction

    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.

    AMRI
    Australia's largest native dung beetle, Aulacopris maximus, one of our target species, collected at Washpool NP
  • Lifting the shroud from the marsupials of Turin

    Hidden for over a century, a significant historic collection of marsupials and monotremes has been unveiled in Turin, Italy.

    AMRI
    Eastern Hare Wallaby  (Lagorchestes leporides)
  • This month in Archaeology: The oldest archaeological evidence of insect foods on stone artefacts in the world

    New evidence for the oldest insect foods on stone artefacts in the world found in Cloggs Cave in the lands of the Krauatungalung clan of the GunaiKurnai people, in the southern foothills of the Australian Alps

    AMRI
    Bogong moth Agrotis infusa (photo: Ajay Narendra). (B) Thousands of moths per square metre aestivating on a rock surface (photo: Eric Warrant). (Stephenson et al. 2021, Figure 1)
  • Fairy Wrasses and Fairy Tales!

    A recent study with Yi-Kai Tea and Joey DiBattista at the Australian Museum uncovers the evolutionary origins of the most species-rich wrasse lineage with the help of an integrative genome-wide dataset.

    AMRI
    The fairy wrasses are among the most diverse of the Labridae, with their 65 species accounting for nearly 10% of the family. Photo credit: Yi-Kai Tea.
  • Wombat pouch microbes: protecting the young?

    Marsupials are born without a functioning immune system, yet they manage to survive, how?

    AMRI
    Mature southern hairy-nosed wombat joey
  • New insights into the pink cockatoo, an outback Australian icon

    Scientists have undertaken the first genetic assessment of the pink cockatoo, providing insights into how the species has evolved in the harsh inland regions of Australia and how we can conserve this Australian icon.

    AMRI
    Photograph of a pink cockatoo (Lophochroa leabeateri leadbeateri) at Mt. Hope, NSW. Photograph by Corey Callaghan.
  • Does the Blue Mountains Tree Frog have really bad neighbours?

    Neighbourly feuds are a universal problem – but for the Blue Mountains Tree Frog, could the other frog species they share a stream with, be deadly?

    AMRI
    The Blue Mountains Tree Frog
  • Celebrating AMRI Women in Science

    To celebrate this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are profiling women from the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI).

    AMRI
    Composite image of Dr Laetitia Gunton, Elizabeth Dowding, Dr Pat Hutchings, Dr Amy Way, Dr Jackie Nguyen and Dr Isabel Hyman
  • Early Birds diary: A morning in January

    The Australian Museum's Early Birds program provides a reduced sensory and supportive environment for visitors on the autism spectrum or those who have other access requirements.

    At the Museum
    Early Birds Autism and Sensory Friendly Mornings 16 January 2021
  • Surrender Your Shell: Using DNA to protect the Hawksbill Turtle

    Did you know that real tortoiseshell products are made from the shell of critically endangered Hawksbill turtles? This illegal trade has brought the species to the brink of extinction. To learn more, the Australian Museum, WWF-Australia and Royal Caribbean International launch Surrender Your Shell.

    AMRI
    Hawksbill turtle
  • Recovery and discovery: rare snails on Lord Howe Island

    After more than a year rodent-free, two of the Critically Endangered land snails on Lord Howe Island are showing strong signs of recovery – and a closely related mystery species has also reappeared!

    AMRI
    Newly rediscovered species Pseudocharopa balli. Image: Justin Gilligan
  • This month in Archaeology: The origins of money

    This month in Archaeology, Dr Way discusses the origins of money examined in the recent PLoS ONE publication, ‘The origins of money: Calculation of similarity indexes demonstrates the earliest development of commodity money in prehistoric Central Europe’ by M.H.G. Kuijpers and C. N. Popa.

    AMRI
    Bundels of rings from Mauthausen hoard, Staatssammlung München. Photo by author.
  • FrogID Week 2020 – rapid citizen science data informing frog conservation

    FrogID, an AM citizen science initiative, is rapidly gathering the information we need to help understand and conserve Australia’s frogs.

    AMRI
    Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog (Litoria fallax) from NSW. Image: Jodi Rowley
  • Legacy of the Egypt Exploration Fund in the Australian Museum

    Since 1882 the Egypt Exploration Fund focused on digging for objects and distributing them widely to subscribing organisations around the world, including those in United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, India, Japan, and Australia.

    Science
    Fragment of tapestry band from Antinoe
  • What can we learn about wombat habitats from their poo?

    Microbes that live in the guts of mammals can be critical to their health and survival, yet we know little about the microbes that inhabit our unique Australian marsupials. Scientists from the University of Adelaide and the Australian Museum studied the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat to learn more.

    AMRI
    The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat