What we do

Our primary research interest is the study and evaluation of evolutionary processes and we work mostly on Australian reptile and frog systems because there are amazing and there are a lot of them. We concentrate on four main research areas which are described below. Of course there is overlap between these research themes, particularly in some of the molecular methods used to tackle questions. Check out our lab publications to get a better feel for what we do.

Molecular Phylogenetics, Phylogeography and Conservation Genetics. Our bread and butter research is molecular phylogenetics and all that that entails - including seeing our results through to taxonomic revision and description of new species. Virtually all of our ARC funded research is to develop big molecular phylogenies and then use these phylogenies to answer cool evolutionary questions. Our interests span higher level phylogenetics, species level phylogeography and also phylogenetic approaches to comparative biology, conservation genetics and taxonomy.  Most of our work is now done at the genomic scale (phylogenomics) and we make extensive use of SNP genotyping for population and species level studies.

Comparative Evolutionary Biology.  One of our main drivers of building big phylogenies for species and populations is to then use them to study how traits evolve.  We now have a number of projects going on in the lab where we are trying to take advantage of many years of hard phylogeny generating and apply them, and new phylogenetic comparative methods, to address a range of cool topics including the evolution of morphological traits, behaviour, colour and distributions.  

Behavioural and Molecular Ecology. We mostly work on mate choice, mating systems, social structure and anti-predator behaviour in both the field and the lab and we use SNP genotyping to do paternity testing. We have done a lot of work on the southern water skink, Eulamprus heatwolei, African flat lizards, Platysaurus broadlyei, Mosquito fish, and various species of Pseudophryne frogs, including northern corroboree frogs, Pseudophryne pengilleyi.

Natural History and Conservation Biology. We are interested in basic natural history and what it can tell us about the ecology, evolution and behaviour of species. Much of this research is based on dissection and measurement of museum specimens - a greatly under utilised biological resource. Almost all of the members of our lab end up spending a lot of time in museums. We also use this information, and field and lab based studies, to address conservation issues of threatened and endangered animals.