ABSTRACT

Australasian marsupials have long informed major ideas in evolution and biogeography, from Wallace's Line to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Yet many marsupial populations occur on islands beyond the limits of continental Sahul despite being poor over-water dispersers. Increasing archaeological, genetic, linguistic, and biogeographic evidence suggests that many of these distributions reflect long-term human-mediated dispersal rather than natural colonisation.

This seminar examines evidence for prehistoric marsupial translocations across Wallacea and Near Oceania, focusing on species such as cuscus, wallabies, and bandicoots. Drawing on zooarchaeological records, phylogenetic studies, and new analyses of regional chronological patterns, I explore how these animals were transported between islands over the last 40,000 years and what these movements reveal about humans as long-term biogeographic agents. More broadly, these "ethnotramps" challenge assumptions about natural species distributions and provide new perspectives on evolution, dispersal, and island biogeography in Australasia.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Shimona Kealy is an archaeologist and palaeobiologist whose research focuses on the long-term movements of people, animals, and cultures across the islands of the Asia-Pacific. Her work combines archaeology, biogeography, palaeogeographic reconstruction, GIS, and phylogenetic analysis to investigate human dispersal, island colonisation, and the ecological consequences of human arrival over the last 50,000 years. She currently leads archaeological and multidisciplinary research projects in Indonesia and Timor-Leste and is an ARC Early-Career Industry Fellow jointly based at The Australian National University and the Australian Museum, where her research explores the prehistoric translocation of marsupials and other animals across Island Southeast Asia and Near Oceania.