Phylogenetic variation in hind-limb bone scaling of flightless theropods
By: Chan, Nicholas R. Paleobiology 43, no. 1 (2017): 129-143. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
The department webpage has been revised and is now live from today. We will be able to update and modify text and images but not the structure. Please have a look and let me know if there are any problems you identify. Next we will work on the biology pages of the staff and student portals – any input welcome!
See you all at Tuesday’s Department meeting – we will talk about planning for the new science precinct amongst other things.
cheerio,
Michelle
Save the Date
This coming week 3rd – 7th April
Tue 4th: Department meeting; lunch from 12.30 followed by regular meeting at 1pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Wed 5th: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Wed 5th: Weekly Seminar – Associate Professor Clare McArthur of University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Wed 5th: Research Enrichment Program – Bookclub: “How to get a PhD: a handbook for students and their supervisors,” Ch 5-6; 4pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Thu 6th: Department social with drinks in the courtyard; 5pm.
Following week 10th – 13th April
Wed 5th: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; The Hill.
Wed 12th: Weekly Seminar – Professor John Mattick, Executive Director, Garvan Institute of Medical Research; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Thu 13th: Department social with drinks in the courtyard; 5pm.
Coming up
April 19th: Research Enrichment Program – Bookclub: “How to get a PhD: a handbook for students and their supervisors,” Ch 7-8; 4pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
May 3rd: Research Enrichment Program – Bookclub: “How to get a PhD: a handbook for students and their supervisors,” Ch 9-12; 4pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
June 13 – 15th: HDR Conference; Timetable TBA; Location TBA.
Department seminar schedule
Apr 19th: Weekly Seminar – Departmental ECR’s; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Apr 26th: Weekly Seminar – Departmental ECRs – Koa Webster & James Lawson; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
May 3rd: Weekly Seminar – Associate Professor Tim Parker, Whitman College, Washington; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
May 10th: Weekly Seminar – Associate Professor Eddie Holmes, The University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
May 17th: Weekly Seminar – Associate Professor Vanessa Hayes, The University of Sydney and The Garvan Institute; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
May 24th: Weekly Seminar – Professor Mike Archer, The University of NSW, PANGEA Research Centre & CREATE School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
May 31st: Weekly Seminar – Professor Michael Romero, Tufts University; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
June 7th: Weekly Seminar – Dr Ceridwen Fraser, ANU; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
June 14th: Weekly Seminar – Dr Caragh Threlfall, The University of Melbourne; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
June 21st: Weekly Seminar – Professor Bill Ballard, The University of NSW; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
June 28th: Weekly Seminar – Professor Madeleine Beekman, The University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
General News and Announcements
Wedding Bells Were Ringing!
Congratulations to newly-weds Raff and Mary!
Congratulations to Jemma
New academic staff member Jemma Geoghegan is the recipient of this year’s Genetics Society of Australasia Wilton Prize (to recognise outstanding contributions to the field of genetics research by Australasian scientists early in their career). Well done Jemma!
Outreach
Do you have any outreach activities coming up or recently completed? DON’T FORGET to let us know via the outreach form – (an average of 1min 46sec to fill in but worth so much more in terms of brownie points for the department) – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE
DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR SERIES
Day/Date/Time/Place: Wednesday, 5th April, 1-2pm, E8A-280 (Tea Room)
Speaker: Associate Professor Clare McArthur of University of Sydney.
Title: Are Elephants Just Big Butterflies? Using Leaf Odour to Detect Food in a Complex, Smelly World
Abstract: Foraging theory usually considers rules of patch quitting based on food quality and predation risk, ignoring the front end of the foraging process, which is finding food in the first place. Yet for herbivores, searching for food plants in complex vegetation communities is a key first step – and failure to do so renders questions about relative food quality irrelevant. But how do herbivores find food plants? Invertebrates use odour and visual cues, yet we know almost nothing about mammalian herbivores. Do they randomly bumble into food, or do they “hunt” it down? And if the latter, what cues do they use? I tested the hypothesis that foraging herbivores use odour cues to detect preferred food plants, using the biggest herbivore there is – the African elephant. As a mega-herbivore, it might be expected to forage randomly just to satisfy its enormous food requirements. But if it uses plant odour cues to enhance its foraging efficiency, it’s likely that plant odour is critical to efficient foraging in many other smaller mammalian herbivores too. I describe trials with six semi-domestic elephants in South Africa, designed to test these ideas. The results? Come and hear about them, and watch these truly magnificent creatures in action.
Terrestrial Fieldwork Coverage (2 weeks only)
From 19th April – 4th May Sarah Collison will not be at work and terrestrial fieldwork approvals will be done by another member of the fieldwork management team. Please ensure during this period that you give more than 3 days notice for fieldwork. Also during this period no fieldwork inductions or planning meetings for new fieldwork will take place. Only ongoing Trip approvals will be happening just for this two weeks.
If you need to have a terrestrial fieldwork induction or talk to Sarah about projects or trips that are not yet planned please do so before 19th April.
Thank you for your understanding.
Plant of the Week
For next week – Tea – Camellia sinensis – a wonderfully natural herbal beverage.
MQMarine Seminar by Robert McKay
“Antarctic in a warmer world: Investigating past Antarctic climates from geological drill cores”
Date: Friday, 07.04.2016
Time: 4 – 5 pm. Come for a chat and grab a drink beforehand, from 3:30 pm!
Where: Staff Café
(W5A Level 3)
Abstract
Mounting evidence from models and geological data implies that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may behave in an unstable manner and retreat rapidly in response to a warming climate. This is a key factor motivating efforts to improve estimates of Antarctic ice volume contributions to future sea-level rise. This talk discusses recent results from deep geological drilling and shallow sediment cores from the Ross Sea region in West Antarctica. These studies have identified past periods of retreat and collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet over the past 5 million years. Although discontinuous in nature, these records provide clues as to the timing of these events, and the forcings that may have initiated marine ice sheet instabilities. There are many uncertainties and logistical challenges to overcome to fully resolve the past history of Antarctica’s ice sheets, and plans for future ocean and sub-ice shelf drilling in 2018-20 will also be discussed.
Most Interesting Genome
A proposal by Professor Bill Ballard and his team to study the DNA of a two year old dingo called Sandy Maliki has been announced as one of five finalists in the World’s Most Interesting Genome competition.
More than 200 international entries were received for the Pacific Biosciences SMRT Grant, which provides services worth about $20,000 to sequence the complete genome of a particularly fascinating or important plant or animal.
The project aims to test Charles Darwin’s (1868) hypothesis that the process of domestication has two-steps: unconscious selection that is the result of non-intentional human influences, and artificial selection through deliberate human breeding.
The general public will decide the winner and we would like you, your friends and your family to vote on the competition website Daily until 5 April: http://www.pacb.com/smrt-science/smrt-grant/pag2017/dancing-dingoes/
Sandy’s progress can be followed on the Dancing with Dingoes Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DancingwithDingoes/.
On youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdhF6qwXNao
A Sydney Morning Herald report can be found at: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/unsw-dingo-dna-study-could-be-the-first-test-of-darwins-challenging-theory-20170315-guysi0.html
New Publications
Subtle changes in the landmark panorama disrupt visual navigation in a nocturnal bull ant
By: Narendra, Ajay, and Fiorella Ramirez-Esquivel. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 372, no. 1717 (2017): 20160068. | Find with Google Scholar »RWTY (R We There Yet): An R Package for Examining Convergence of Bayesian Phylogenetic Analyses
By: Warren, Dan L., Anthony J. Geneva, and Robert Lanfear. Molecular biology and evolution (2017). | Find with Google Scholar »PartitionFinder 2: New Methods for Selecting Partitioned Models of Evolution for Molecular and Morphological Phylogenetic Analyses
By: Lanfear, Robert, Paul B. Frandsen, April M. Wright, Tereza Senfeld, and Brett Calcott. Molecular Biology and Evolution (2016): msw260. | Find with Google Scholar »Geographic divergence in dispersal-related behaviour in cane toads from range-front versus range-core populations in Australia
By: Gruber, Jodie, Gregory Brown, Martin J. Whiting, and Richard Shine. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 71, no. 2 (2017): 38. | Find with Google Scholar »Uncovering environmental, land-use and fire effects on the distribution of a low-dispersal species, the Hermann’s tortoise Testudo hermanni
By: Badiane, Arnaud, Cátia Matos, and Xavier Santos. Amphibia-Reptilia 38, no. 1 (2017): 67-77. | Find with Google Scholar »The water-repellent cerotegument of whip-spiders (Arachnida: Amblypygi)
By: Wolff, Jonas O., Michael Seiter, and Stanislav N. Gorb. Arthropod structure & development 46, no. 1 (2017): 116-129. | Find with Google Scholar »Sexual and nonsexual cannibalism have different effects on offspring performance in redback spiders
By: Boisseau, Romain P., Shawn M. Wilder, and Katherine L. Barry. Behavioral Ecology (2016): arw159. | Find with Google Scholar »Potential impacts of a future persistent El Nino or La Nina on three subspecies of Australian butterflies
| Find with Google Scholar »The colour of paternity: extra-pair paternity in the wild Gouldian finch does not appear to be driven by genetic incompatibility between morphs
By: Bolton, Peri E., Lee Ann Rollins, James Brazill‐Boast, K‐W. Kim, Terry Burke, and Simon C. Griffith. Journal of evolutionary biology 30, no. 1 (2017): 174-190. | Find with Google Scholar »Applications of fipronil (Adonis 3UL) and Metarhizium acridum for use against locusts have minimal effect on litter decomposition and microbial functional diversity in Australian arid grassland
By: Maute, Kimberly, Paul Story, Grant C. Hose, C. M. Bull, and Kris French. Soil Research (2016). | Find with Google Scholar »Individual and interactive effects of drought and heat on leaf physiology of seedlings in an economically important crop
By: Duan, Honglang, Jianping Wu, Guomin Huang, Shuangxi Zhou, Wenfei Liu, Yingchun Liao, Xue Yang, Zufei Xiao, and Houbao Fan. AoB Plants (2016): plw090. | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Josh Madin was interviewed by the BBC
Dr Josh Madin from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed by the BBC on Cyclone Debbie and its potential impact on the Great Barrier Reef.
Rob Harcourt provided comment to Mashable Australia
Professor Rob Harcourt of the Department of Biological Sciences provided comment to Mashable Australia on Cybersecurity for Sharks (yes, the fish). See the full article here.