Blog archive:
AMRI

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.

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

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.

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.

In Australia there are over 40 species of mangroves; despite their key role in coastal ecosystem function, we know relatively little about their reproductive ecology. Learn more about the pollinators involved, in this recent and pivotal study.

Scientists from the Australian Museum, Indo-Myanmar Conservation and ZSL London Zoo search for frogs and the world’s worst wildlife disease in the mountains of northern Vietnam.

Opalised fossils help tell the story of a small crocodile that lived among the dinosaurs.

From the forests of northeastern Cambodia, another frog species new to science is scientifically named!

Taxonomy and systematics comprise the describing, naming and classifying the natural world. By classifying the natural world, we can understand a species origins and interrelationships. So how do we get it right, and how do we get it wrong? We explore the world of marine invertebrates for more.

The tiny, enigmatic snail was last collected in 1889 and is currently listed as extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). So, we were very excited to find Nancibella quintalae alive on Norfolk Island!

Dr Amy Way discusses a recently published paper by Pardoe and Hutton in the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, examining how Aboriginal people traditionally lived in large groups around ecological ‘hotspots.’

Did you know that there are over 50 islands in the Bass Strait, the 240 km stretch of ocean that separates mainland Australia and Tasmania? But what of its fauna? Scientists have recently extracted DNA from museum specimens to better understand the evolutionary history of Bass Strait island fauna.

Kenneth Peter Aplin (1958–2019) was one of Australia’s leading vertebrate systematists, well known as an anatomist, mammalogist, herpetologist, palaeontologist, and archaeologist – he was an altogether unique and admired man.

Australian Museum scientists have identified a new pipefish species under the waves of our biggest city. Australia’s newest endemic fish species was found hiding in plain sight at a popular Sydney dive spot!

The amphibian chytrid fungus, responsible for causing frog declines around the world, may not yet have reached the Solomon Islands.