Aerial view of Antarctica
Image: John Long
Source: Museum Victoria
Museum Victoria’s contributions to Antarctic science.
In celebration of the International Polar Year (IPY), this is the first of a series of Hot Topics which will focus on the Museum’s work on the polar regions.
Several staff have been working in the Antarctic, while another will soon be actively working up in the Arctic.
Dr Mark Norman is Senior Curator in Marine Zoology. Specialising in the study of Molluscs (snails, squid, octopi), he has been to Antarctica four times by sea, visiting New Zealand and Australian Subantarctic Islands (Snares, Auckland, Campbell and Macquarie), the Antarctic Islands (Heard, Scott, Possession and Ross) and the Antarctic mainland (Enderby Land, Wilkes Land and Victoria Land).
His primary research interests there are southern cephalopods, particularly the evolution and toxicity of Antarctic octopi. He has also worked on Antarctic seals and marine invertebrates.
Dr Gary Poore, Principal Curator in Marine Zoology, has also visited the subantarctic islands, working on crustacean fauna in the seas around Heard Island. His primary research work has covered much of the general Antarctic crustacean fauna.
MV honorary research associates working in the field of marine biology have also visited Antarctica or worked on Antarctic material. These include Mark O’Loughlin who is studying asteroids (starfishes) and Jeanette Watson’s work on hydoids of the Antarctic seas.
Dr Richard Marchant, Senior Curator in Terrestrial Zoology, visited Macquarie Island 15 years ago and undertook detailed surveys of freshwater stream communities, uncovering 11 species of invertebrates living in these ecosystems. He hopes to return soon for another survey.
Dr Tom Rich, Senior Curator in Vertebrate Palaeontology, visited Alaska 30 years ago searching for fossils as a colleague of the late Dr John Cosgriff of the USA. Today Tom actively researches polar dinosaurs and mammals which came from southern Victoria at a time when it was within the Antarctic circle. Along with David Pickering, in August he heads off to dig dinosaurs from Alaska’s Colville River site.
Dr John Long, Head of Sciences, participated in two expeditions collecting Devonian age (c. 390 mya) fish fossils from the Transantarctic Mountains, in 1988-89 and 1991-92. The later expedition involved a deep field put-in by Hercules C130 aircraft followed by 700 km of sledging through mostly unknown territory.
Despite close calls with avalanches and crevasses he survived to write a book about his adventures, Mountains of Madness-A Journey Through Antarctica (Allen & Unwin, 2000), highlighting the daily adventure and scientific work achieved by the expedition.
John and his team recently submitted a paper to Antarctic Science describing a new primitive ray-finned fish from the Devonian of Antarctica. It is one of the most primitive known members of the fish group which today are the world’s largest group of vertebrates (c. 30,000 species).
This summer Dr Janette Norman, Senior Curator in Molecular Biology, will team up with Dr Bryan Fry from Melbourne University to head down to Antarctica and collect tissue samples from various marine creatures, searching for traces of venoms as part of an Australian Antarctic Division funded project entitled ‘Venom on Ice’.
Be sure to check MV News each month for future IPY updates, as MV scientists share stories and images of their work.