The University of Queensland
The School of Earth Sciences, part of the Faculty of Science at The University of Queensland, is an exciting and vibrant research School that includes the traditional disciplines of hard and soft rock Geology, as well as Palaeontology. The School provides unique opportunities for study or research in vertebrate palaeontology and palaeoecology, with national and international programs in marsupial evolution, megafaunal palaeobiology and palaeoecology, and Quaternary geochronology.
Several opportunities currently exist for students interested in volunteering and studying in research programs (Honours and PhD) within the Vertebrate Palaeoecology research group within the School:
Excavations in Colsseum Chamber
Volunteering:
Late Quaternary climate change impacts on microfauna of central eastern Queensland.
Project: In a collaborative project led by Dr Julien Louys (UQ Postdoctoral Fellow within the School), we are examining the response of small-bodied faunas (snails, frogs, lizards, small mammals and birds) to long-term climate and environmental perturbations through the late Quaternary (last 40 thousand years). Literally thousands of fossils have been excavated from the fossil deposit within Colosseum Chamber, a cave in the Mt Etna region of central easternQueensland. The fossils require sorting into both skeletal elements and taxonomic classes for subsequent palaeoecological analyses. Opportunities exist for students to assist in the task.
Supervisors: Dr Julien Louys, Dr Gilbert Price, Dr Kenny Travouillon.
Megafaunal extinction on the Darling Downs, southeastern Queensland.
Project: A new megafaunal site was discovered on the Darling Downs in 2011. Preliminary excavations have uncovered numerous fossils, from turtles to kangaroos. Amongst the new finds is the skull of a Diprotodon– one of the largest specimens of its kind ever discovered. Opportunities exist for student to assist in the sieving and sorting of fossils from the sediments excavated from the site.
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price
Honours research projects:
Lifetime dietary reconstruction of the extinct mega-marsupial, Diprotodon optatum.
Themes include: palaeobiology, palaeoecology and geochemistry.
Project: Diprotodon the largest marsupial that ever lived and as such, is one the most iconic members of Australia’s extinct Pleistocene megafauna. Despite fossils being known since the 1830’s, comparatively little is known about its palaeoecology and palaeobiology. This project aims to address the question one of the most fundamental, yet basic, questions about Diprotodon palaeobiology: what did it eat? The project will use a combination of morphological, microscopy, and geochemistry tools to reveal the lifetime diet of the Diprotodon.
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price, Professor Jian-xin Zhao.
Determining migratory ability of extinct Pleistocene megafauna
Themes include: palaeobiology, geochemistry, sedimentology, stratigraphy.
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price, Professor Jian-xin Zhao.
Long-term changes in the diet of the enigmatic, extinct Pleistocene kangaroo, Troposodon
Themes include: palaeobiology, palaeoecology, geochemistry.
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price, Dr Julien Louys, Professor Jian-xin Zhao.
Late Pleistocene-Recent faunal change from Colosseum Chamber, Mt Etna region, central eastern Queensland
Themes include: palaeoecology, geochronology, taphonomy.
Supervisors: Dr Julien Louys, Dr Gilbert Price, Dr Kenny Travouillon.
PhD projects:
Extending our understanding of late Pleistocene megafaunal communities of eastern Australia
Themes include: stratigraphy, sedimentology, palaeoecology, geochronology.
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price.
Determining the timing of extinction of Australia’s Pleistocene megafauna.
Themes include: geochronology, geochemistry.
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price, Professor Jian-xin Zhao, Professor Gregg Webb.
Radiogenic Isotope Facility (specialising in uranium-series dating) at UQ
Extending the application of using U-series to date museum fossils specimens.
Themes include: geochronology, geochemistry.
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price, Professor Jian-xin Zhao.
Palaeoecology of megafauna fossil sites of northern Australia
Themes include: palaeoecology, palaeobiology, geochronology
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price, Dr Julien Louys, Dr Kenny Travouillon.
Late Pleistocene palaeoclimate reconstruction based on speleothems from the Mt Etna region, central eastern Queensland
Themes include: palaeoclimatology, geochemistry, geochronology
Supervisors: Dr Gilbert Price, Professor Jian-xin Zhao, Professor Gregg Webb, Dr Kevin Welsh
