Crustaceans include crabs, shrimps, yabbies and lobsters, but also a vast diversity of smaller relatives. Further information and photographs of many examples of the common kinds of crustaceans is provided at the Museum Victoria web site Crustaceans of Southern Australia.
Crustacean research at Museum Victoria is led by Dr Gary Poore. Gary investigates the diversity of marine crustaceans and promotes the importance of taxonomic understanding in ecology, biogeography and management. He is the author of ‘Marine decapod Crustacea of southern Australia: A guide to identification’ (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne. 2004) and numerous papers and chapters.
Families and genera of the world’s ghost shrimps and mud lobsters (Decapoda: Thalassinidea)
Species lists of accepted names, a bibliography of over 1700 titles, keys to all families and genera are part of this research. The research will also reappraise the systematics of the group on the basis of a cladistic analysis. The project is supported in part by a NSF grant to an “Assembling the Tree of Life” project on Decapoda: http://decapoda.nhm.org/
Guides to the families and genera of the world’s marine Isopoda and species from Australia.
The project synthesises information from many sources to enable marine biologists to identify to genus (or to species in Australia) the known taxa of marine Isopoda. DELTA software is being used to compile data and to generate interactive keys and diagnoses.
Systematics of Valvifera and other marine Isopoda
Valviferan isopods are a species-rich group in the cooler waters of southern Australia and in deeper water throughout the globe. Descriptions of numerous new species of this group and other families of marine isopods from Australia and elsewhere depend on redefinition of genera world-wide. The research involves publication of descriptions of new species and higher level revisions.
Diversity, species composition and biogeography of marine benthic communities
In collaboration with CSIRO Marine Laboratories, scientists are undertaking an investigation of the biodiversity and biogeography of the unexplored Australian continental margin. The research concentrates on the numerous species of decapod crustaceans, many hundreds undescribed taxa. The aims are to discover distribution patterns in this taxon and compare this with patterns shown by other animals from the same environments. The project involves PhD student, Anna McCallum, University of Melbourne.
Systematics of Amphipoda
Dr Joanne Taylor is investigating the diversity and systematics of the amphipod family Phoxocephalidae, common inhabitants of sandy marine environments throughout Australia.