Blog archive:
AMRI

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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!

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.