Western Melanesian Herpetofauna Diversity
Examining
Melanesian Megadiversity
UKRI Natural Environment Research Council & National Science Foundation
Grant Funded Project
Lab work in
full swing
Extractions, amplifications and sequencing work for our fresh tissue samples is well underway after optimising laboratory protocols at the University of Wolverhampton. We're filling gaps in the geographical and species data, aiming for comprehensive coverage of populations and genes.
Welcome
Our project, established in 2023 and made possible through joint funding of the NERC in the UK and NSF in the USA, will shed light on the origins of Western Melanesian Diversity using molecular analyses of the region's herpetofauna.
Rationale
Western Melanesia, comprising New Guinea, Admiralty, Bismarck, Solomon, and smaller outlying islands, sits at the crossroads of Asia and Australiaand is one of the most interesting, puzzling, and understudied hyperdiverse regions on Earth.
But how was western Melanesia’s tremendous biodiversity generated?
Clarifying how tectonic movements have sundered or joined different Melanesian landforms in the past several million years is key to understanding the origins of this biotic diversity. This project intends to elucidate how the diversity and evolutionary history of western Melanesia have impacted evolution of the region’s biota, and to identify those ancient insular landmasses critical in the origin of lineages that colonised and radiated across New Guinea, Australia, and/or insular Asia. To meet this goal, we will construct dated phylogenetic trees on a multitude of reptile and amphibian (herpetofauna) lineages having different dispersal abilities, times of origin, and natural histories that span the five major landmasses of western Melanesia.
