• News from LIRS: Octopus pair at Lizard Island

    Each month, a selected blog from Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation (LIRRF) is featured at the AM. LIRRF supports scientific research & education at the AM’s Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef. This month, we feature: Octopus pair at Lizard Island.

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    Video capture of the Octopus Pair at Lizard Island.
  • New Guinean flightless mammals: Overlooked diversity

    An international project combines community ecology, phylogenetics & morphology to uncover and describe the cryptic species of Mount Wilhelm, the highest mountain of Papua New Guinea. Hundreds of New Guinean flightless mammals have been sampled – visiting researcher František Vejmělka tells us more.

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    Coppery Ring-Tailed Possum - the world's biggest ring-tailed possum.
  • A New South Wales first! New species of legless lizard discovered in the Hunter Valley

    Found just two hours out of Sydney, a team of Australian Museum scientists have described the Hunter Valley Delma – the first legless lizard species endemic to NSW.

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    The newly described species Hunter Valley Delma (Delma vescolineata).
  • Australian Frog Atlas: Revealing the true distributions of Australia’s frogs with the help of citizen scientists

    The most detailed maps of Australia’s frogs have now been produced and are open access for frog research and conservation.

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    The Crucifix Frog (Notaden bennettii), one of 248 frog species whose distribution maps have been updated for the Australian Frog Atlas. The new map for this species incorporates two large extensions of its previously known range
  • Unravelling the frog diversity of Gondwanan rainforests

    Continuing research in rainforests of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland has recently resulted in the scientific description of two unique frog species.

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    Gondwanan Temperate Rainforest is wet, cool, and lush green.
  • It’s CSI – frogs edition and we need you!

    Check your frog photos for frog-biting flies and submit them to our study to help us develop a new, DNA based frog detection method.

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    A green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) being attacked by mosquitos.
  • News from LIRS: Learning from the cleaners and their clients

    Each month, a selected blog from Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation (LIRRF) is featured at the AM. LIRRF supports scientific research & education at the AM’s Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef. This month, we feature: Learning from the cleaners and their clients.

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    A juvenile bluestreak wrasse attending to a fearsome predator – a giant moray eel Gymnothorax javanicus
  • Bones of contention

    In a fierce rivalry surpassed only by rugby players, Australian waters are home to creatures that are not seen in Aotearoa New Zealand. Or . . . are they? Cephalopod expert, Dr Mandy Reid at the Australian Museum, explores further.

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    A Giant Australian cuttlefish, Sepia apama.
  • Looking beyond the headlines: How did snails fare in the 2019-2020 bushfires?

    A new study by Australian Museum researchers sheds light on the impacts of the 2019-2020 wildfires on land snails in north-eastern NSW.

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    Land snails living under a dead log in the Gondwanan Rainforests of NSW.
  • Socialising to survive

    Earlier exits of H. sapiens from Africa were overprinted by the big exit around 60-70,000 years ago. Why was this exodus so successful when the earlier excursions were not? A new study by an international team of scientists confirm that social networking was key to this success.

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    Early humans across southern Africa made a particular type of stone tool - the backed artefact- in the same shape, showing that the populations must have been in contact with each other.
  • Recording absence records on the FrogID app

    The FrogID app now includes the ability to let us know when no frogs are calling - an ‘absence’ or ‘null’ record, adding scientific value to the FrogID dataset.

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    Nadiah Roslan using the FrogID app
  • News from LIRS: 2022 Critical Research Grant awarded

    Each month, a selected blog from Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation (LIRRF) is featured at the AM. LIRRF supports scientific research & education at the AM’s Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef. For this month, we feature: 2022 Critical Research Grant awarded.

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    How many coral species? We thought we could tell by external appearance but molecular analysis suggests that we’ve been missing a lot.
  • Deep dark dumplings: Two new bottletail squids from New Zealand

    Decades after their discovery, two species of bottletail squid are finally formally described. Jae Santos at the Australian Museum tells us how these species differ from other squids, and the stages in bringing new species to light.

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    Newly described species. Left: Sepioloidea jaelae; Right: Sepioloidea virgilioi.
  • Magnificent discoveries on Lord Howe Island

    A recent snail survey on Lord Howe Island was punctuated with shouts of excitement, as we found not one, not two, but three rarely seen species.

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    Dr Frank Köhler, Dr Isabel Hyman and Junn Foon on Lord Howe Island.
  • Future-proofing the koala: How museums can help protect an Australian icon

    The most comprehensive genetic assessment of koala populations to date has provided fascinating insights into how the species responded to past climate change, and highlights the critical role of museums in supporting ongoing conservation efforts.

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    Koala in the wild