ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2452-1404
Current Organisation
The Australian Museum/UNSW
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Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) | Geology | Geochemistry not elsewhere classified
Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Education and Training Systems not elsewhere classified |
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 15-04-2019
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 10-05-2017
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/AM15038
Abstract: It was recently shown that adult male koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) possess a novel vocal organ, the velar vocal folds, that underlie their mating bellows. Here we demonstrate through dissection of the infrahyoid region that this novel structure is also present in female and immature male koalas.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 06-10-2015
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 08-03-2017
Abstract: The striking resemblance of long-snouted aquatic mammals and reptiles has long been considered an ex le of morphological convergence, yet the true cause of this similarity remains untested. We addressed this deficit through three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the full ersity of crocodilian and toothed whale (Odontoceti) skull shapes. Our focus on biomechanically important aspects of shape allowed us to overcome difficulties involved in comparing mammals and reptiles, which have fundamental differences in the number and position of skull bones. We examined whether diet, habitat and prey size correlated with skull shape using phylogenetically informed statistical procedures. Crocodilians and toothed whales have a similar range of skull shapes, varying from extremely short and broad to extremely elongate. This spectrum of shapes represented more of the total variation in our dataset than between phylogenetic groups. The most elongate species (river dolphins and gharials) are extremely convergent in skull shape, clustering outside of the range of the other taxa. Our results suggest the remarkable convergence between long-snouted river dolphins and gharials is driven by diet rather than physical factors intrinsic to riverine environments. Despite erging approximately 288 million years ago, crocodilians and odontocetes have evolved a remarkably similar morphological solution to feeding on similar prey.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.JTBI.2012.01.030
Abstract: The ability to warp three-dimensional (3D) meshes from known biological morphology to fit other known, predicted or hypothetical morphologies has a range of potential applications in functional morphology and biomechanics. One of the most challenging of these applications is Finite Element Analysis (FEA), a potentially powerful non-destructive tool in the prediction of mechanical behaviour. Geometric morphometrics is another typically computer-based approach commonly applied in morphological studies that allows for shape differences between specimens to be quantified and analysed. There has been some integration of these two fields in recent years. Although a number of shape warping approaches have been developed previously, none are easily accessible. Here we present an easily accessed method for warping meshes based on freely available software and test the effectiveness of the approach in FEA using the varanoid lizard mandible as a model. We further present new statistical approaches, strain frequency plots and landmark point strains, to analyse FEA results quantitatively and further integrate FEA with geometric morphometrics. Using strain frequency plots, strain field, bending displacements and landmark point strain data we demonstrate that the mechanical behaviour of warped specimens reproduces that of targets without significant error. The influence of including internal cavity morphology in FEA models was also examined and shown to increase bending displacements and strain magnitudes in FE models. The warping approaches presented here will be useful in a range of applications including the generation and analysis of virtual reconstructions, generic models that approximate species means, hypothetical morphologies and evolutionary intermediaries.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 15-09-2023
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 16-01-2013
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 22-09-2016
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-08-2023
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 04-2018
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.172393
Abstract: Streamlined flippers are often considered the defining feature of seals and sea lions, whose very name ‘pinniped’ comes from the Latin pinna and pedis , meaning ‘fin-footed’. Yet not all pinniped limbs are alike. Whereas otariids (fur seals and sea lions) possess stiff streamlined forelimb flippers, phocine seals (northern true seals) have retained a webbed yet mobile paw bearing sharp claws. Here, we show that captive and wild phocines routinely use these claws to secure prey during processing, enabling seals to tear large fish by stretching them between their teeth and forelimbs. ‘Hold and tear’ processing relies on the primitive forelimb anatomy displayed by phocines, which is also found in the early fossil pinniped Enaliarctos . Phocine forelimb anatomy and behaviour therefore provide a glimpse into how the earliest seals likely fed, and indicate what behaviours may have assisted pinnipeds along their journey from terrestrial to aquatic feeding.
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 28-01-2014
DOI: 10.3354/ESR00559
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 24-06-2015
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.JBIOMECH.2017.03.003
Abstract: Unrelated clades of aquatic tetrapod have evolved a similar range of skull shapes, varying from longirostrine (elongate and narrow rostrum) to brevirostrine (short rostrum). However, it is unclear which aspects of organismal performance are associated with this convergence in the range of skull shapes. Furthermore, it is not known how fundamental anatomical differences between groups influence these relationships. Here we address this by examining the load bearing capabilities of the skulls of two of the most erse groups of living aquatic tetrapod: crocodilians and odontocetes. We use finite element analysis to examine the abilities of different cranial morphologies to resist a range of biologically relevant feeding loads including biting, shaking and twisting. The results allow for form/function relationships to be compared and contrasted between the two groups. We find that cranial shape has similar influences on performance during biting, shaking or twisting load cases at the anterior tooth positions, e.g. brevirostrine species experienced less strain than longirostrine species. The pattern of this form/function relationship is similar for both crocodilians and odontocetes, despite their fundamentally different anatomies. However, when loading teeth at the posterior end or middle of the tooth row the results do not follow the same pattern. Behavioural differences in bite location plays a key role in determining functional abilities in aquatic tetrapod taxa.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 17-04-2023
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-2017
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.170022
Abstract: Many odontocete groups have developed enlarged facial crests, although these crests differ in topography, composition and function. The most elaborate crests occur in the South Asian river dolphin ( Platanista gangetica ), in which they rise dorsally as delicate, pneumatized wings anterior of the facial bones. Their position wrapping around the melon suggests their involvement in sound propagation for echolocation. To better understand the origin of crests in this lineage, we examined facial crests among fossil and living Platanistoidea, including a new taxon, Dilophodelphis fordycei , nov. gen. and sp., described herein, from the Early Miocene Astoria Formation of Oregon, USA. We measured the physical extent and thickness of platanistoid crests, categorized their relative position and used computed tomography scans to examine their internal morphology and relative bone density. Integrating these traits in a phylogenetic context, we determined that the onset of crest elaboration or enlargement and the evolution of crest pneumatization among the platanistoids were separate events, with crest enlargement beginning in the Oligocene. However, we find no evidence for pneumatization until possibly the Early Miocene, although certainly by the Middle Miocene. Such an evolutionary context, including data from the fossil record, should inform modelling efforts that seek to understand the ersity of sound generation morphology in Odontoceti.
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 02-06-2015
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.988
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 07-01-2022
Abstract: The discovery of an exceptionally well-preserved fossil site provides new insight into the nature of Miocene ecosystems.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 06-11-2019
DOI: 10.1017/PAB.2018.33
Abstract: Toothed cetacean (Odontoceti) lineages in the Miocene and Pliocene evolved rostra that are proportionally more elongate than any other aquatic mammal or reptile, living or extinct. Their similarities in cranial proportions to billfish may suggest a convergent feeding style, where the rostrum is swept through the water to hit and stun prey. Here we calculated second moment of area from rostral cross sections of these fossil odontocete taxa, as well as from extant ecological analogues, to infer variation in feeding behavior. Our results show that the extremely long rostra of extinct toothed whales vary considerably in functionally relevant measures of shape and likely exhibited a ersity of feeding behaviors, ranging from those similar to modern odontocetes to those convergent with billfish. Eustatic sea-level and temperature maxima of the Miocene likely led to changes in prey characteristics or abundance that enabled the repeated evolution of this extreme morphotype, which later went extinct during late Pliocene climatic deterioration.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 25-09-2022
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 05-11-2013
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.204
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2022
DOI: 10.1111/PALA.12629
Abstract: Temnospondyli are a morphologically varied and ecologically erse clade of tetrapods that survived for over 200 million years. The body mass of temnospondyls is a key variable in inferring their ecological, physiological and biomechanical attributes. However, estimating the body mass of these extinct creatures has proven difficult because the group has no extant descendants. Here we apply a wide range of body mass estimation techniques developed for tetrapods to the iconic temnospondyls Paracyclotosaurus davidi and Eryops megacephalus . These same methods are also applied to a collection of extant organisms that serve as ecological and morphological analogues. These include the giant salamanders Andrias japonicus and Andrias davidianus , the tiger salamander Ambystoma tigrinum , the California newt Taricha torosa and the saltwater crocodile, Crocodylus porosus . We find that several methods can provide accurate mass estimations across this range of living taxa, suggesting their suitability for estimating the body masses of temnospondyls. Based on this, we estimate the mass of Paracyclotosaurus to have been between 159 and 365 kg, and that of Eryops between 102 and 222 kg. These findings provide a basis for examining body size evolution in this clade across their entire temporal span.
Location: United States of America
Start Date: 05-2023
End Date: 05-2026
Amount: $386,379.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
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