Helen Taylor • Jan 25, 2019 •
What happens when you reunite two species that have been separated for centuries by human activity? According to our latest research, they might turn out to be old rivals. A landscape of species separation New Zealand is a pretty unique place when it comes to biodiversity. However, it’s unique in some negative ways too. Thanks to human activity, many … Read More
Nic Rawlence • Apr 18, 2018 •
Ground control to Major Tom: The otherworldly Herangi Hill at Motu i Pao/Cape Maria van Dieman where Fred found the ancient Moho skull. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Carol. In the pouring rain, surrounded by flowing sand lava and cascading lahars, Fred Brook gingerly walks towards Matt Rayner and me. He’s sliding across a steep sand dune, his hands carefully … Read More
Nic Rawlence • Mar 19, 2018 •
It’s the height of the Central Otago summer – barren, dry and dusty. Driving down the gravel road to St Bathans, we’re travelling back in time, down the rabbit hole to a world long gone. Only ghosts remain of this lost world and that’s what we’ve come here to find. The fossilised bones of a myriad of animals dating back … Read More
Guest Author • May 12, 2017 •
By Marc Emyr Huw Jones, University of Adelaide Have you ever heard of the tuatara? It’s a reptile that decapitates birds with its saw-like jaws, lives to about 100 years old, and can remain active in near-freezing temperatures. It’s also the sole survivor of a lineage as old as the first dinosaurs. May 2017 marks 150 … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • May 08, 2014 •
The NZ government today announced the country’s next Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs), who between them will receive just under $35 million per year for 6 years starting in January 2015. They are: The Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, hosted by University of Auckland MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, hosted … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jun 17, 2013 •
As David Winter sets out to blog about the exciting Tuatara sequencing project, just in time for Monday Micro comes news that scientists have used sequencing to untangle a little more of the history of leprosy. Just in case you need reminding, leprosy*, also known as Hansen’s disease, is caused by the extremely … Read More
Hilary Miller • Nov 09, 2010 •
Seeing as reptile reproduction seems to be a bit of a hot topic right now, I thought it was time to talk about sex determination in tuatara. Tuatara do things a little differently to other reptiles when it comes to sex determination – not because they have temperature-dependent sex determination (thats common to lots of […] … Read More
Hilary Miller • Oct 26, 2010 •
As you might expect from an animal that is so evolutionarily distant from its nearest relatives, the tuatara also has some unique parasites to call its own. One of these is the tick Amblyomma sphenodonti (sometimes also called Aponomma sphenodonti), pictured here. Like many ticks, A. sphenodonti are host-specific, spending all three of their life stages […] … Read More
Hilary Miller • Oct 12, 2010 •
I haven’t had much time for writing this week, so instead I thought I’d share this photo as a reminder to my New Zealand readers that it is actually spring, even though it doesn’t feel like it! … Read More
Hilary Miller • Sep 21, 2010 •
This little guy lives on Stephens Island in the Marlborough Sounds, and is affectionately known as “tree tut” to the Victoria University researchers who frequent the island. Because he lives in a tree, of course. His tree is along the pathway between the house occupied by the DoC rangers and the house where the researchers stay, [...] … Read More