Origin of jaws - the greatest unsolved mystery of early vertebrate evolution. The 2008 discovery of an unborn embryo in the 380 million-year-old "Mother Fish" from the famous Gogo fossil deposit in NW Australia has attracted a collaboration of Australian, American and Chinese scientists to a new international collaboration. The team will study spectacular new fossils from central Australia and southern China, the oldest known back-boned animals with jaws and a hard skeleton. Innovative 3D X-ray ....Origin of jaws - the greatest unsolved mystery of early vertebrate evolution. The 2008 discovery of an unborn embryo in the 380 million-year-old "Mother Fish" from the famous Gogo fossil deposit in NW Australia has attracted a collaboration of Australian, American and Chinese scientists to a new international collaboration. The team will study spectacular new fossils from central Australia and southern China, the oldest known back-boned animals with jaws and a hard skeleton. Innovative 3D X-ray computer tomography, and the Australian synchrotron, will be used to investigate ancient cells and preserved soft tissue structures, to search for evidence that copulation and internal fertilization, as in modern mammals, might have originated when jaws first evolved. Read moreRead less
Extinction and survival: biotic responses to environmental change in Late Devonian oceans during a greenhouse-icehouse transition. This project represents an important opportunity to answer fundamental questions about the role of environmental changes in major mass extinction events in the geological past and to provide insight into the survival of modern marine species in response to climate change (National Research Priority 1). It will enhance Australia's global research profile in biostratig ....Extinction and survival: biotic responses to environmental change in Late Devonian oceans during a greenhouse-icehouse transition. This project represents an important opportunity to answer fundamental questions about the role of environmental changes in major mass extinction events in the geological past and to provide insight into the survival of modern marine species in response to climate change (National Research Priority 1). It will enhance Australia's global research profile in biostratigraphical and palaeontological research through contribution to the development of biozonations, correlation and global debate on extinction mechanisms. It will also strengthen international collaboration, and, importantly, provide crucial research training to young researchers in these fields.Read moreRead less