Associate Professor, Flinders University
I am an evolutionary biologist with particular interest in understanding how vertebrate animals adapt to the environment. My most long-standing interest is the evolution of marsupial mammals, such as kangaroos, wombats and koalas. I am particularly focused on trying to understand how the unusual birth mode of marsupials - with tiny embryo-like newborns - affects their ability to adapt to diverse environmental conditions. However, I also love working on questions of how adaptation determines the shape of vertebrates in general. My favourite research techniques are the use of virtual three-dimensional reconstructions of animal skeletal shape, and using the R statistical language to quantify patterns of shape variation.
Why the long face? Experts provide a new theory for why larger mammals tend to have longer faces
Dec 12, 2023 15:57 pm UTC| Nature
A horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks, why the long face? Its one of the oldest puns in the book, and theres no shortage of entertaining answers. With our new review we add our own scientific explanation:...