Blog archive: AMRI

AMRI

A tiny frog with tusks rediscovered on the New England Tablelands and North West Slopes of eastern Australia

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.

AMRI

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

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

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

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

Wombat pouch microbes: protecting the young?

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

AMRI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Myth or museum specimen? The animals that are more fact than fiction

Famously featured in George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones franchise, the dire wolf is far more than a popular legend. A recent study in Nature has discovered how genetically distinct this prehistoric carnivore actually was. Read more about the study, and other animals thought to be pure myth.