Sep 18, 2023 | Biodiversity, People
Sea spiders (Pycnogonida) are a fascinating and understudied group of organisms. They are the closest relative of all arachnids (spiders, scorpions, mites, etc.) without being an arachnid. Sea spiders and arachnids form a group known as the Class Chelicerata. There... 
Oct 10, 2022 | Biodiversity, Fellowships, Research
Finally, a long-delayed field trip takes place! Dr Chris Goatley (University of New England) and Dr Simon Brandl (University of Texas Austin) were jointly awarded The John and Laurine Proud Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2020. After two years’ delay forced by... 
Apr 10, 2022 | Biodiversity, Grants
The 2022 Lizard Island Critical Research Grant has been awarded to Prof. Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University and colleagues from the Museum of Tropical Queensland and University of Hawai’i at Manoa. The project,... 
Dec 10, 2021 | Biodiversity, Long-term
That apparently simple question is not so easy to answer. Not only are corals notoriously difficult to identify to species, the mixture of species within a local community can change over time, rare species are easily overlooked, and even the concept of a species can... 
Sep 16, 2021 | Biodiversity, Grants
A 2013 expedition to Lizard Island by a team of worm taxonomists has greatly expanded knowledge of coral reef biodiversity – and reveals how much more there is still to learn. Polychaetes are marine worms commonly known as Bristle Worms. The 11th International... 
Jun 13, 2021 | Biodiversity, Grants, Long-term, People, Research
Dr Kyle Zawada is a humble man, but show him just a glimpse of Acropora loripes and he’ll give you its distribution, distinctive features and more in a heartbeat. Whereas some specialize in the language of mathematics or the coded workings of the human mind, Kyle’s...