Melville Honours Projects

Impacts of Quaternary climate change on shaping past reptile and frog communities along a 3000km latitudinal gradient, from the Australian tropics to the temperate south

Other supervisors: Dr Scott Hocknull

Background:  The honours project/s will contribute to a larger study funded by an ARC Discovery grant, focusing on using existing palaeontology collections, 3D imaging, ancient-DNA, proteomics, and new machine-learning analytical approaches to investigating the impacts of Quaternary climate change on shaping past reptile and frog communities along a 3000km latitudinal gradient in Australia.

Project Aims:  The broad project aims are to: 1. Quantify how reptile and frog community composition has changed over the past 500,000 years at multiple fossil sites spanning four climatic regions across the full latitudinal gradient of (mainland) Australia. 2. Determine how these faunal changes correlate with climate and vegetation shifts past and present, with predictions into the future.

Techniques: Honours projects/s may involve field work, 3D imaging of fossils through CT scanning, molecular biology techniques, proteomics, and new machine-learning analytical approaches.

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