Peering into the past of our iconic mammals

Project description

Many of Australia’s iconic mammals have an expansive fossil record, which can tell us a lot about their adaptation over time. They were also often distributed in parts of Australia where they are now extinct. We offer a several projects that focus on diversity and adaptation of particularly important species, such as wombats (survivors of the iconic megafauna), carnivorous marsupials like the thylacine or quolls, or key ecosystem engineers like burrowing bettongs or stick-nest rats. You will use our 3D scanner and geometric morphometric analysis (with pre-existing R code to make it possible for R newbies to navigate the project!) to determine the shape of the skull, mandible, or dentition of living populations as a “baseline”, for contrasting with extinct specimens. This can help us understand whether the fossil record has previously unidentified separate species, or whether today’s living species have changed through time. The species chosen depends on the student’s interest. We particularly welcome Indigenous students or partners to suggest a project on a particular animal remains on Country, of course subject to the appropriate permissions from the local traditional owners.

Co-supervisors

Depending on the project, we have a wide network of collaborators within Flinders (e.g., Palaeontology) and beyond to ensure the right experts are on board for the project.

Assumed knowledge

Basic Biostatistics (i.e. understanding what an ANOVA is) and a willingness to learn R coding are essential, but you don't have to be a coding whiz, stats guru,  or ever been near R. Students tend to start off petrified of the stats and end up addicted to coding.

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.