Find out about our latest news and events.

News

Tuesday, 16 May 2023

Until recently we had very little idea when butterflies evolved, and hypotheses concerning their place of origin were largely educated guesses.

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Tuesday, 02 May 2023
Wednesday, 12 Apr 2023

A new study shows that we can use existing conservation data to predict which currently unthreatened species could become threatened and take proactive action to prevent their decline before it is too late.

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Friday, 10 Mar 2023

Superb fairy-wrens are more likely to take risks to help members of their close social circle, according to a new study.

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Tuesday, 13 Dec 2022

Dr Tobias Hayashi studied a delicate little native orchid with a cool and clever adaptation to attract pollinators.

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Monday, 28 Nov 2022

While most spiders are creatures of solitude, a study involving researchers from ANU has found some species have become more gregarious.  

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Events

Chun-Chieh Liao
5 Dec 2025 | 3 - 4pm

In this talk, I introduce how white-winged choughs, highly social cooperative breeders, integrate multiple features of alarm and contact communication to coordinate antipredator behaviour and maintain cohesion.

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Dalton Leibold
28 Nov 2025 | 1 - 2pm

Developmental conditions are powerful drivers of phenotypic plasticity. Environmental factors, such as temperature, can directly program fitness-associated phenotypes, while maternal effects act as indirect cues that shape the developmental environment.

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Josef Garen
30 Oct 2025 | 1 - 2pm

Using Eucalypts representing widely contrasting range sizes and home climates across Australia, I explore whether greater geographic distribution size or climate of origin are associated with the ability of these plants to acclimate their photosynthetic and respiratory apparatus or heat tolerance thresholds.

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Image supplied by Dr Dan Warren, CSU
16 Oct 2025 | 2:30 - 3:30pm

Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used across fields as diverse as ecology, archaeology, epidemiology, and conservation biology.

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Image supplied by Ryan O'Donnell
11 Sep 2025 | 3 - 4pm

The majority of studies into the Australian orchid flora and associated funga have thus far been narrow in scope and focused either on a macro- or microevolutionary scale. In this thesis, I studied the Australian terrestrial orchid flora and its associated funga as a unified system spanning from the macro to microevolutionary scale.

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Distinguished Prof Natalia Dudareva, Purdue University
11 Aug 2025 | 1 - 2pm

Plants synthesize an amazing diversity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that facilitate interactions with their environment, ranging from attracting pollinators and seed dispersers to protecting themselves from pathogens, parasites, and herbivores.

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