Mid-Cretaceous marine reptiles from the Southern Carnarvon BasinResearch Projects | Updated 7 months agoThe lower Murchison River area and Giralia Range expose marine sedimentary rocks of mid-Cretaceous age, locally rich in remains of extinct marine reptiles. The material comprises isolated teeth and bones as well as partial skeletons. Ichthyosaurs dominate the reptilian faunas, but several types of plesiosaurs and turtles are also present.More information
Nothing But Memories Research Projects | Updated 9 months agoNothing But Memories was a contemporary collecting project focused on two recent natural disasters: the Wooroloo bushfire (February 2021) and Tropical Cyclone Seroja (April 2021). Made possible by a Minderoo grant from the Foundation for the WA Museum, the project collected stories of these events from residents, volunteers and first responders through video interviews. In 2022, Museum staff recorded over 40 interviews and video journals while visiting the communities of Wooroloo, Gidgegannup, Kalbarri, Northampton, Morawa and Perenjori.More information
Collecting changes in women’s sport Research Projects | Updated 10 months agoThis pilot contemporary collecting project seeks to capture experiences unique to women playing Australian rules football, cricket and basketball through object donations and interviews. Many elite women’s sporting careers are represented in the Museum, but there are key gaps in the collection, particularly in the reflection of sports that have developed since the 1990s. Recent attention to women’s sport has prompted the Museum to ensure its collection reflects the longevity of women’s sport and recent developments.More information
Gem CollectionCollections | Updated 3 months agoMany minerals are valued and collected for their beauty, rarity, and the shape, size and perfection of their crystals. Some minerals and rocks have properties that allow them to be fashioned into gems and set in jewellery. Western Australia is a fossickers paradise, with so much area to explore, and home to fine artisans who prepare gems and create jewellery. The Earth and Planetary Sciences department at the Western Australian Museum maintains a collection of gemstones and jewellery that is primarily focused on Western Australia.More information
Valuing Australia’s new Gascoyne Marine ParkResearch Projects | Updated 2 years agoThe Aquatic Zoology team is collaborating with CSIRO, Australia's national science agency and Parks Australia to undertake a comprehensive biodiversity survey of one of Australia’s newest marine parks. Established just four years ago, the Gascoyne Marine Park covers 81,766 km2 of marine habitats to the west of Cape Range Peninsula and extends protection from the Ningaloo Marine Parks all the way out to Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, some 370 km offshore.More information
30 Jun 2021New research discovering new species of fussy barnaclesThree new species have just been described as part of an ongoing research project between the WA Museum and Curtin University, which has been examining the diversity of a symbiotic group of barnacles found embedded in the tissues of sponges. There were approximately 20 named species of sponge-inhabiting barnacles in Australia and this latest publication from the project adds an additional six species to the Australian fauna, including the three new species.Read more Blog entry Andrew Hosie
12 Apr 2019New name for a tropical whip spongeBy Jane Fromont The enigmatic body shape of a tropical whip sponge collected in Western Australia has resulted in the creation of a new family and genus of sponges. The species was first described from Indonesia as Dendrilla lacunosa by Hentschel in 1912 and 100 years later found in abundance in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia during fieldwork funded by the Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI). This is where the puzzle begins.Read more Blog entry Andrew Hosie
Dating West Antarctic ice sheet collapse using molecular sequence data Research Projects | Updated 10 months ago Please Note - this project has concluded.More information
Coral resilience and the optimal management of biodiversityResearch Projects | Updated 9 months ago Please Note - this project has concluded.More information
10 Aug 2018Australia's Diverse Sponge BarnaclesWhen people think of barnacles they normally picture a small, conical shell clinging to rocks at low tide or to ships’ hulls and normally thought of as being a nuisance. What most people don’t realise is that barnacles are crustaceans (so closely related to crabs and shrimps) that have specialised and adapted to almost every marine environment, from the depths of over 5000m to being exposed at low tide for hours a day.Read more Blog entry Andrew Hosie
7 May 2018Unreliable colour patterns in seaslugsAs part of the Net Conservation Benefits Fund project, we have discovered 18 new species of Chromodoris nudibranch sea slugs. In our paper (Flexible colour patterns obscure identification and mimicry in Indo-Pacific Chromodoris nudibranchs; Mol. Phylo. Evol. 124, 27-36) we show that many of these new species have very similar colour patterns to already described species, which can be confusing when trying to identify species. This finding suggests that these colour patterns are not very reliable.Read more Blog entry Joel Huey