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In my last blog, I ended with the
activities of my 2015 students. I’ll pick up where I left off…
In August 2015, I re-entered the “marine
snail” world as I took on the co-supervisory role of master’s student, Stephen
Maxwell. Stephen’s work focuses on taxonomy, systematics, morphological aspects
of the different snails, and genetics. He has produced two papers so far, one
describing a new species of Vasticardium,
called Vasticardium swanae (Fig. 1)
and the other discussing commercially driven taxonomy. You can find these listed
on my blog, and he has a few others under review and some in preparation. He’s
currently preparing to present his final seminar, and then hopefully he will
submit his thesis soon thereafter.
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| Fig. 1. A new species of Vasticardium, Vasticardium swanae (Maxwell et al. 2016) |
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| Fig. 2. Misha Rowell's poster presented at ASSAB, Katoomba 2016 |
In February 2016, my new honours student,
Misha Rowell, started her project investigating the impact of
microenvironmental change on emotion and cognition in M. cervinipes. She set up two habitat categories and, after several
days, she then trained animals in a modified Barnes maze to assess anxiety and
spatial cognition. She then either returned them to their original habitat
category, or she switched them into the opposite category. After an acclimation
period, they were trained again in the Barnes maze. Like Ayla, Misha was also
fortunate enough to have her project funded by both Skyrail Rainforest Foundation and the Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA). Misha also
presented her preliminary findings in poster format (Fig. 2) at the
Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour conference in Katoomba,
New South Wales in 2016. We are in the process of preparing her data for
publication. A short blurb is available on the Skyrail website.
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| Fig. 3. Greater glider Petauroides volans. Photo: D. Cook; https://www.flickr.com/photos/kookr/8688066201 |
Also at the start of 2016, I took on a
masters by coursework student, Zachary Julson, who did a minor project on
resource availability and tree use of greater gliders Petauroides volans (Fig. 3). He spent some time using Fourier
Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to determine formylated phloroglucinols in Eucalyptus leaves and he also measured
water content. He has subsequently returned to his home in the United States.
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| Fig. 4. Pale yellow robin Tregellasia capito. Photo: J.J. Harrison; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tregellasia_capito_-_Julatten.jpg |
In June 2016, I took on another
co-supervisory role, this time for honours student Renee Cassels, who is
looking at fragmentation and pale-yellow robins Tregellasia capito (Fig. 4). She has been conducting field work up
on the Atherton tablelands, working in numerous different fragments up
there. She is due to submit her thesis mid-year, so watch this space!
Also in June 2016, I took on a student who
is studying a Graduate Certificate in Research Methods. Jess Watt is also a
marine snail person, focusing on Strombus gibberulus
(Fig. 5). She started mid-year 2016 with me, and completed her literature
review, so is now focusing on collecting the data needed for her project. She
will be working at Green Island (Fig. 6), studying the communities of marine
gastropods and the different habitat characteristics of the island. More
updates on her project will follow once she’s collected the data she needs.
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| Fig. 5. Marine gastropods Strombus gibberulus sp. Photo: R. Parker; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strombus_gibberulus_gibbosus.shell001.jpg |
Finally, starting soon in 2017, I have a
new masters by coursework student, Kelsey Paulling, who is going to be
investigating melomys olfactory cues. Hopefully, we’ll find some interesting
stuff there, so keep watching this space!
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| Fig. 6. Green Island, Australia |
