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Should we delve into de-extinction?

5/5/2015

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By Caitlin Syme and Dr Tamara Fletcher

As palaeontologists, we understand the desire to bring ancient animals back to life. It could answer so many questions about these enigmatic creatures: How did they behave? How did they grow? And what colour were they? Indeed, what could possibly go wrong? Surely if we kept these animals in a pen on an island without a scheming thief unlocking all the gates on a stormy night, we would all be safe.

Humans often seem to act with little regard for their environment. We have seen the consequences borne out in the rapid extinction of animals and plants in countries where humans are the newly introduced species – the exotic invaders. Even when humanity and their natural environment are apparently in harmony, new arrivals with different cultural practices can throw the whole system back into turmoil. We only seem to understand the consequences of our actions in hindsight, and sometimes not even then.

De-extinction could be seen as a path for redemption, to ease us of our guilt. We can finally bring back long-dead fauna and flora that we had a hand in wiping out. But to what end? It is our belief that we should only resurrect species that still have niches available to them in ecosystems that are struggling in their absence. This is not a new idea. With all the recent hype around resurrecting woolly mammoths, Beth Shapiro, author of
How to Clone a Mammoth (Princeton University Press, 2015) was quoted as saying, “I probably should have called the book, How One Might Go About Cloning a Mammoth (Should It Become Technically Possible, And If It Were, In Fact, a Good Idea, Which It's Probably Not)” (Callaway, 2015). We agree, and wonder if these resources are likely better spent protecting the environment we do have, and repairing the environmental damage we’ve done, and are currently doing.

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Old species, new invasive: What modern day niche would the Columbian Mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, fill?
For now, technological limitations render ethical arguments somewhat moot. The only available way to currently recreate past environments is through historical records and palaeontology: the study of ancient organisms and the traces they left behind, whether they are bones or teeth, carapaces of insects or footprints of any animal, leaf impressions, wood, pollen, and the list goes on. When it comes to reconstructing whole environments, looking to modern analogues can help us out. Does the pattern of plants in the fossil record look similar to any modern environments? Does the pattern or rings in wood occur in any climatic conditions now? Do any known modern animals leave traces like those left behind in ancient sediments?

While as palaeontologists we can explore ancient environments, we may never know for certain exactly how a species behaved. For example, footprints left behind by modern birds engaging in mating displays may indicate that certain repetitive patterns of movements were used, and we might be able to hypothesise that these animals were engaged in mating behaviours. But we wouldn’t know just from those prints what their wings were doing, or what their call sounded like. That said, if we brought these animals back would they even behave like their ancient counterparts, if born of the lab and raised by humans? 

De-extinction may be an interesting and worthwhile thought experiment, and it may even raise awareness of the plight of modern endangered species, but for now we are safe from the island of dinosaurs, and even the dodo. 

References
Callaway, E. 2015. Mammoth genomes provide recipe for creating Arctic elephants. Nature News, 1st May 2015. http://www.nature.com/news/mammoth-genomes-provide-recipe-for-creating-arctic-elephants-1.17462. Accessed 6th May 2015.

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'Walking with Dinosaurs in the Kimberley': CSIRO and UQ join forces

5/5/2015

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By Caitlin Syme

Drones and dinosaurs, the perfect partnership!

Our lab (UQ Vertebrate Palaeontology and Biomechanics) has teamed up with CSIRO, Airborne Research Australia (Flinders University), and the Goolarabooloo Traditional Custodians and Yawuru Native Title holders to map 130 million year old dinosaur footprints along the Broome coastline in Western Australia.

Find out more over at the news@CSIRO website: "Walking With Dinosaurs: Advanced science recreates ancient past."

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Image by Damian Kelly Photography
There will be more updates about this exciting project over the coming months on this blog. And if you'd like to see regular updates about this project, you can follow Dr Steve Salisbury (@implexidens) and Dr Anthony Romilio (@a_romilio) on Twitter.
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PhD and Honours projects to help track dinosaurs in the Kimberley

4/5/2015

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By Dr Steve Salisbury

We are looking for motivated PhD and Honours students to help research the dinosaur tracks of the Broome Sandstone on the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia.  The Kimberley’s ‘dinosaur coast’ preserves what is arguably one the largest and most significant stretches of dinosaur track-sites in the world. Despite recent National Heritage listing, the majority of these tracksites are largely undocumented, such that their full scientific significance is poorly understood.
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Anthony Romilio, Dr Steve Salisbury and Jay Nair (from left to right) examine newly discovered theropod tracks at Jungkurr–Ngakalyalya. Photo: Damian Kelly Photography.
As part of a three year ARC Discovery Project (2014­­–2016), our aim is to digitally map the dinosaur tracksites of the Dampier Peninsula, utilising high-resolution aerial photography with both manned and unmanned aircraft, airborne and hand-held LiDAR imaging, and digital photogrammetry. The results will allow us to construct high-resolution, 3D digital outcrop models of the tracksites, and bring the 130 million-year-old landscapes back to life.

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Dr Steve Salisbury (left) and Anthony Romilio (right) ducument a sauropod track at at Jungkurr–Ngakalyalya for 3D photogrammetry. Photo: Nigel Clarke.
Potential research areas for PhD and Honours projects include the following:
  • Detailed analysis and interpretation of new dinosaur tracksites using 3D laser scanning and digital photogrammetry;
  • Ichnotaxonomic, behavioural or biomechanical analysis of various types of dinosaur tracks (sauropods, thyreophorans, ornithopods, theropods);
  • Palaeoenvironmental analysis and palaeoecology of the Broome Sandstone and its biota (facies analysis, stratigraphy and palaeobiodiversity).

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Broome Dinosaur Trackers Damien Hirsch (left) and Louise Middleton (right) help Goolarabooloo Law Boss Richard Hunter (centre) uncover new tracks north of Walmadany. Photo: Nigel Clarke
All projects are expected to involve some amount of fieldwork, and funding is set aside to facilitate this. The ARC project will nominally involve three ~10 day field trips each year, with the timing contingent on tides and weather conditions.

Good spoken and written English is desirable. Applicants should ideally have a background in either palaeontology, ichnology, comparative anatomy, biomechanics, sedimentary geology, or digital 3D visualisation.

Please send expressions of interest, along with a CV and academic transcript, to Dr Steve Salisbury.
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Early morning tracking session at Yinara. Photo: Steve Salisbury
For more background information on the Dinosaur Coast and the recent battle to save it from large-scale industrial development, click here.

ABC Catalyst -- Kimberley Dinosaurs (video + transcript) YouTube

For more information about other potential Honours and PhD projects in the Vertebrate Palaeontology and Biomechanics Lab, click here.

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All our research is conducted with the consent and collaboration of the area's Traditional Custodians and the Broome Dinosaur Trackers. Goolarabooloo Law Boss Phillip Roe (left) and Yawuru elder Micklo Corpus (right) during a recent fieldtrip. Photo: Steve Salisbury.

UQ's Honours program
For more information about Honours in the School of Biological Sciences, click here.

UQ's PhD program
Acceptance into UQ's PhD program is contingent on a meeting the UQ entry requirements. Overseas applications are encouraged, as the School of Biological Sciences has made available a number of competitive international PhD scholarships.
  • For general information about how to enroll in UQ’s Research Higher Degree program, click here 
  • For more information on International PhD scholarships in School of Biological Sciences (UQ), click here
  • For more information on International PhD scholarships offered at The University of Queensland, click here 
  • For further information on PhD scholarships for Australian students offered at The University of Queensland, click here 

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The Cretaceous ghosts of Walmadany. Image: ABC graphics designer Toby Goulding.
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