Annual Report 2001-2002 - Western Australian Museum - The ...

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Western Australian Museum–
Science and Culture
Fred Wells’s major research focus was on tropical mollusc species occurring in the waters
around the islands of Raja Ampat off Irian Jaya and the coral reefs of Nosy Be in Madagascar.
This contributed to a publication on the coral reef hotspots of the world in the prestigious
journal Science; this publication ranked the coast of Western Australia, between Ningaloo and
Perth, as second in the number of restricted range taxa, seventh in total biodiversity and fifteenth
in terms of threats to reefs.
Shirley Slack-Smith continued documenting the land snail fauna of the state. She is also
conducting research with Associate Professor Brian Moreton from Hong Kong on the flat oysters
(family Ostreidae, subfamily Ostreinae) of southern Australia.
Jane Fromont wrote up her research on the excavating sponges destructive to pearl oysters,
and continued to supervise PhD students Kayley Usher on her marine symbioses project and
Lea McQuillan on sponge distributions in Marmion Marine Park. Jane participated in a successful
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) application examining the aquaculture
of sponges, and a second FRDC project with Gary Kendrick from The University of Western
Australia on the sessile benthos of the Esperance bioregion, which will continue into next year.
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Alex Bevan continued to work on the new meteorites added to the collection. Several new and
unusual meteorites are currently under investigation, in collaboration with Dr Mike Zolensky at
NASA, Houston, Texas. Alex continued to supervise PhD student Phil Hawke, who is working
on the geophysical signatures of impact structures in Australia.
Peter Downes continued research on diamond-bearing alkaline rocks and secondary copper
minerals from the Nifty Copper Mine. Samples collected from the mine, together with additional
samples provided by Mr Mark Creasy, have been described and included in a paper submitted
to the Australian Journal of Mineralogy.
Ken McNamara continued work on fossil harpetid trilobites with PhD student and Research
Associate Dr Malte Ebach. A paper revising the order Harpetida was accepted for publication.
With assistance from student Sarah Martin, research was undertaken on Late Eocene echinoids
from near Albany and on Late Cretaceous plants from Kalbarri, in collaboration with Honours
student Shelley Cooper. A study of a Paleogene flora was undertaken with Honours student
Alex Stevens. Work on Goethean perspectives on evolution continues with Professor Martin
Lockley of the University of Denver and Professor Wolfgang Schad of the University of Witten,
Germany.
John Long published a paper on the Gogo fish Onychodus and its evolutionary relationships,
and submitted papers on fossil acanthodian jaws from the Devonian of New South Wales (with
Dr Carole Burrow, University of Queensland) and a review of Western Australian mosasaur
remains (with Dr James Martin, United States). Current research on the new species of Gogo
Onychodus is under way, with co-authors at the Australian National University in Canberra
(Professor Ken Campbell, Dr Richard Barwick) and the Natural History Museum in London (Dr
Per Ahlberg).
Emeritus Curator George Kendrick (Palaeontology) continued work on Indian Cretaceous
molluscan faunas and Neogene faunas of the Perth Basin. Research Associate Professor Yu
Wen (Palaeontology) continued work on Chinese Cambrian molluscan faunas.
Terrestrial Invertebrates
In addition to his research on Australian native bees, Terry Houston initiated a study into the
biology of ‘sandgropers’ (Orthoptera: Cylindrachetidae). Following media publicity of his quest
for specimens, he received a large number of reports of what proved to be superficially similar
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM ANNUAL REPORT 2001–2002