Aquatic Zoology's research

  • Image copyright of WA Museum

    15 Jul 2010

    Darwin’s Opera House Barnacle - species of the month

    Calantica darwini Jones & Hosie, 2009

    Described and named only last year, these tiny stalked barnacles are only known from the deep water off the coast of north Western Australia and are easily overlooked due to their small size (<1 cm in height!) and their habit of attaching to the branches of deep sea corals. With a bit of imagination, a cluster of these tiny barnacles resembles the Sydney Opera House, hence their common name.

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    Blog entry
    Western Australian Museum

  • Special Projects - Documentary Unit

    Departmental resources | Updated 1 decade ago

    The documentary unit within the WA Museum films and photographs the Museum's fieldwork and produces a range of photographic galleries and documentaries based on this work.

    Some of these documentaries can be viewed on the videos page, and some photography can be viewed on our galleries page.

    To get in contact with the documentary unit, please contact Clay Bryce: clay.bryce@museum.wa.gov.au

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  • Aquatic Zoology - peer-reviewed publications

    Departmental resources | Updated 12 months ago

    Peer-assessed publications from Aquatic Zoology between 2004-2024.

    2011-2024

    H.L. O'Neill, W.T. White, J.J. Pogonoski, B. Alvarez, O. Gomez, J.K. Keesing. (2024). Sharks checking in to the sponge hotel: First internal use of sponges of the genus Agelas and family Irciniidae by banded sand catsharks Atelomycterus fasciatus. Journal of Fish Biology 104 (1), 304-309.

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  • 25 May 2010

    Marine life of the Northwest

    Andrew Hosie Curator, Aquatic Zoology

    Commercial and tourism interest in the Dampier Archipelago, Northwest Atolls and the Kimberley is at an all time high. Understanding what lives in the Northwest has never been more important.

    Join Andrew Hosie as he talks about the major biodiversity research that has been conducted by the Museum over the last decade, and the many species that have been discovered that were previously unknown in WA or to science.

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    Video
    Western Australian Museum

  • Three small Triops australiensis crustaceans

    Crustacea Section

    Collections | Updated 4 months ago

    The Crustacean Collection of the Western Australian Museum comprises marine, freshwater and terrestrial animals, which total over 103,000 specimens.

    Crustaceans are part of the phylum Arthropoda, which are invertebrates with a hard outer skeleton (cuticle) and jointed legs. This group includes animals such as spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, centipedes, millipedes and of course crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs, prawns and barnacles.

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  • 2 sea stars on coral underwater

    Marine Invertebrates Section

    Collections | Updated 4 months ago

    The Western Australian Museum’s Marine Invertebrates Section comprises specimens from many aquatic animals including Cnidaria, ascidians, Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, ctenophores, Foraminifera and others!

    Although all aquatic groups are collected and studied, this collection mainly focuses on Porifera (sponges), echinoderms (e.g. sea stars) and scleractinian (hard) corals.

    The Marine Invertebrates Collection comprises approximately 63,000 specimens, covering eleven different phyla.

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  • Iridescent fish swimming in the ocean

    Fish (Ichthyology) Section

    Collections | Updated 4 months ago

    The Museum’s Fish collection comprises nearly 200,000 specimens from some 280 different families.

    The collection holds marine and freshwater fish, bony fish and cartilaginous fish (sharks and rays) and includes everything from tiny fish to very large fish. It is primarily focused on Western Australian fishes, but contains extensive specimens from other parts of Australia and from elsewhere in the world, especially our nearest neighbours, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

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  • Christmas Tree Worms

    Worm Section

    Collections | Updated 4 months ago

    The Western Australian Museum’s Worm Collection comprises specimens from a wide range of unrelated animals commonly referred to as worms owing to their generally long and skinny bodies. There are approximately 42,000 specimens in the collection.

    The collection includes commonly encountered and well known groups of worms' such as annelids like earthworms, leeches and tube worms, as well as lesser known groups such as the peanut worms (Sipuncula), innkeeper worms (Echiura) and ribbon worms (Nemertea).

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  • A chiton’s shell consists of eight separate plates that overlap to form a shell

    Mollusc (Malacology) Section

    Collections | Updated 4 months ago

    The Western Australian Museum's Mollusc Collection represents molluscs collected from Western Australia, other parts of Australia, and from the wider world. The collection consists of approximately ­400,000 lots.

    Image of a Pinctada margaritifera - Black Lipped Pearl Oyster

     

     

     

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