\n HBI Seminar: Adaptations in marsupials

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\n \n Date: \n 23 JUN 2023\n Time: \n 12:30 PM to\n 1:30 PM\n \n \n Location:\n\n 360.4.003 \n \n \n Add to Calendar:\n < a href=\"https://announcements.murdoch.edu.au/ics/id/10551\" title=\"Aadd to calendar\">\n < /span>\n

\n Join us for the HBI Friday seminar featuring a presentation on the Mus culoskeletal adaptations in marsupials by HBI Murdoch University researche r\, Dr Natalie Warburton.

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\n $\"Marsupials$ \n

M orphological convergence\, shared phenotypic traits representing adaptatio ns to particular behaviours or environmental constraints\, provide a usefu l way of understanding animal ecology and evolution.

Certainly\, t he search for functional analogues between marsupial and placental mammals has been a mainstay in understanding and communicating marsupial diversit y. From marsupial moles to &lsquo\;Tasmanian tigers&rsquo\;\, the attribut ion of familiar names to unfamiliar animals provides an accessible way of broadly categorising animals\, but is it possible to find true analogues b etween these two groups\, and if so\, what are they?

Marsupial mol es are certainly &lsquo\;moleform&rsquo\;\, but Thylacines are neither &ls quo\;tigers&rsquo\; nor &lsquo\;wolves&rsquo\;. More difficult again are t he Macropodoids\, kangaroos and their relatives\, who are far more diverse than typically considered.

As the dominant mammalian herbivores o f the Australian continent\, they range from diminutive rainforest inhabit ants to large and specialized saltators of open arid areas\, giant bipedal walkers and rock dwellers\, and while most are terrestrial arboreal forms have evolved more than once.

In reviewing recent research in this field\, Dr Warburton will present case studies that highlight some of the great diversity in morphology that belies the taxonomic classification of &lsquo\;macropods&rsquo\; and propose some alternative hypotheses of mars upial-placental convergence.

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