Paucity of predators: does Australia have fewer predators than it should?

Project description

Australia would appear to have few large (native) mammalian predators relative to other continents. Whether this is a result of insularism since Australia first separated from Gondwana around 100 million years ago, a product of differential extinction rates during the megafauna extinction event of the Late Pleistocene, or a combination of both is still unknown. Additionally, we are uncertain whether the paucity of predators applies to other taxonomic groups (birds, reptiles, amphibians), and if Australia differs markedly from other continental masses.

Co-supervisors

Dr Frédérik Saltré, Dr John Llewelyn

Assumed knowledge

Basics of evolutionary biology; ability to work with large databases; some experience in R ideal (but not necessary if capable of learning basic coding)

Supervisors research focus

See the Global Ecology Lab's research page

Note: You need to register interest in projects from different supervisors (not a number of projects with the one supervisor).
You must also contact each supervisor directly to discuss both the project details and your suitability to undertake the project.