Fields of Research

Behavioural ecology
Evolutionary biology
Biogeography and phylogeography
Animal behaviour
Life histories
Evolutionary ecology
Biological adaptation
Population ecology
Evolution of developmental systems
Evolutionary impacts of climate change
Animal developmental and reproductive biology
Ecological physiology
Terrestrial ecology
Genetics
Phylogeny and comparative analysis
Animal physiology - systems
Zoology
Gene expression (incl. microarray and other genome-wide approaches)
Conservation and biodiversity
Comparative physiology
Global change biology
Genomics
Animal physiological ecology
Plant and fungus systematics and taxonomy
Animal physiology - cell
Epigenetics (incl. genome methylation and epigenomics)
Community ecology (excl. invasive species ecology)
Genomics and transcriptomics
Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation
Animal neurobiology

Research Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences
Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences
Assessment and management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystems
Terrestrial biodiversity
Ecosystem adaptation to climate change
Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems
Climate change models
Rehabilitation or conservation of terrestrial environments
Biodiversity in Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments
Other environmental management
Control of pests, diseases and exotic species in terrestrial environments
Effects of climate change on Australia (excl. social impacts)
Understanding the impact of natural hazards caused by climate change
Social impacts of climate change and variability
Climate variability (excl. social impacts)
Weather
Expanding knowledge in psychology

Career Best Publications

Adaptive responses to cool climate promotes persistence of a non-native lizard; Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Climate-driven population divergence in sex-determining systems; Nature
Extensive introgression and mosaic genomes of Mediterranean endemic lizards; Nature Communications
Live bearing promotes the evolution of sociality in reptiles; Nature Communications
Patterns of developmental plasticity in response to incubation temperature in reptiles; Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology
Regulatory changes in pterin and carotenoid genes underlie balanced color polymorphisms in the wall lizard; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Sexual selection drives asymmetric introgression in wall lizards; Ecology Letters
Signatures of selection in embryonic transcriptomes of lizards adapting in parallel to cool climate; Evolution
Sociality in Lizards; Comparative Social Evolution
The thermal environment as a moderator of social evolution; Biological Reviews

Research Publications

Adaptive responses to cool climate promotes persistence of a non-native lizard; Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Aggression and the evolutionary ecology of social systems; International Society of Behavioural Ecology (ISBE) conference
Aggression and the evolutionary ecology of social systems; International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry
Aggression and the evolutionary ecology of social systems; EGI Student Conference on Ecology and Evolution
Aggression, but not testosterone, is associated to oxidative status in a free-living vertebrate; Behaviour: An International Journal of Behaviourial Biology
Agonistic behavioural asymmetry in two species of montane lizard that exhibit elevational replacement; Landscape Ecology
Allopatric divergence drives the genetic structuring of an endangered alpine endemic lizard with a sky-island distribution; Animal Conservation
Altitudinal divergence in maternal thermoregulatory behaviour may be driven by differences in selection on offspring survival in a viviparous lizard; Evolution
Altitudinal divergence in maternal thermoregulatory behaviour may be driven by differences in selection on offspring survival in a viviparous lizard. Adaptation to climate from a spatial perspective; European Science Foundation workshop
An experimental test of relatedness-based mate discrimination in a social lizard; Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
An integrated approach to understanding climate change on snow skinks; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
Are there benefits to being born asynchronously: an experimental test in a social lizard; Behavioral Ecology
Australian lizards are outstanding models for reproductive biology research; Australian Journal of Zoology
Avian predation intensity as a driver of clinal variation in colour morph frequency; Journal of Animal Ecology
Behavioural responses to environmental variation in cool temperate reptiles and the implications for species persistence under projected climate change; 28th Annual Meeting Australian and New Zealand Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry
Behavioural responses to the thermal environment and its implications for climate change impacts; Ecological Society of Australia Conference 2011
Behavioural syndromes and structural and temporal consistency of behavioural traits in a social lizard; Journal of Zoology
Birthing asynchrony in reptiles: a little explored maternal effect; 2nd Wollongong Workshop in Evolutionary Ecology: Evolution of parental effects: Conceptual issues and empirical patterns
Birthing asynchrony is not a consequence of asynchronous offspring development in a non-avian vertebrate, the Australian skink Egernia whitii; Functional Ecology
Book Review: Eco-evolutionary dynamics. Andrew Hendry. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2017. xii + 397 pp. ISBN: 9780691145433
Can behavior and physiology mitigate climate change impacts on snow skink persistence and distribution?; Species on the Move
Can behaviour buffer climate change?; 14th International Behavioral Ecology Congress
Chapter 12. The evolutionary ecology of reproductive investment in lizards; Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Lizards and Tuatara
Chapter 15. The Evolutionary Ecology of Parental Care in Lizards; Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Lizards and Tuatara
Characterisation and cross-amplification of sex-specific genetic markers in Australasian Egerniinae lizards and their implications for understanding the evolution of sex determination and social complexity; Australian Journal of Zoology
Chemical communication, sexual selection, and introgression in wall lizards; Evolution
Climate and sex ratio variation in a viviparous lizard; Biology Letters
Climate driven population divergence in sex determining systems; International Society of Behavioural Ecology (ISBE) conference
Climate effects in birth dates and offspring sex ratios in two natural populations of a viviparous skink, Niveoscincus ocellatus; International Evolution Meeting
Climate influences on phenology and sex ratios in snow skinks; Australian Society of Herpetologists AGM
Climate shapes the geographic distribution and introgressive spread of color ornamentation in common wall lizards; The American Naturalist
Climate-driven population divergence in sex-determining systems; Nature
Comment on 'Intrasexual competition among females: evidence for sexual selection' by Kimberly Rosvall; Behavioral Ecology
Comparison of reproductive investment in native and non-native populations of common wall lizards reveals sex differences in adaptive potential; Oikos
Conservation status of the world's skinks (Scincidae): Taxonomic and geographic patterns in extinction risk; Biological Conservation
Conspecific aggression and its influence on key social strategies in a social lizard; Annual Meeting of the Australian Society of Herpetologists
Data Descriptor: a comprehensive database of thermal developmental plasticity in reptiles; Scientific Data
Decline in lizard species diversity, abundance and ectoparasite load across an elevational gradient in the Australian alps; Austral Ecology
Degrees of change: between and within population variation in thermal reaction norms of phenology in a viviparous lizard; Ecology
Degrees of change: the evolution of sex determination in shifting climates; Ecological Society of Australia 2014 Annual Conference
Determinants of home range size and overlap in a social lizard (Egernia whittii); Australian Society of Herpetologists
Development of 13 microsatellite loci in the spotted snow skink Niveoscincus ocellatus (Squamata: Scincidae) ; Conservation Genetic Resources
Developmental biology: embryonic movement influences sex determination in a turtle; Current Biology
Developmental plasticity in reptiles: insights from temperature-dependent gene expression in wall lizard embryos; Journal of Experimental Zoology
Different sex determination mechanisms between two populations of a viviparous skink: observations and potential explanations; Fifth International symposium on the biology of vertebrate sex determination
Disentangling sex allocation in a viviparous reptile with temperature-dependent sex determination: a multifactorial approach; Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Disentangling sex allocation: a multifactorial approach; Behaviour 2015 Conference
Distance from cover affects artificial food-patch depletion by macropod herbivores; Wildlife Research
Do female Niveoscincus ocellatus alter sex allocation based on mating experience?; 1st Evolution and Ecology meeting
Effects of basking opportunity on birthing asynchrony in a viviparous lizard; Animal Behaviour
Effects of temperature on birth spread in a viviparous lizard (Egernia whitii): consequences for offspring phenotype and fitness; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual Conference
Evaluation of offspring size-number invariants in 12 species of lizard; Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Examining the role of testosterone in mediating short-term aggressive responses to social stimuli in a lizard; PLoS One
Experimental contact zones reveal causes and targets of sexual selection in hybridizing lizards; Functional Ecology
Experimental manipulation suggests effect of polyandry but not mate familiarity on within-pair aggression in the social skink, Liopholis whitii; Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Extensive introgression and mosaic genomes of Mediterranean endemic lizards; Nature Communications
Family aggression in a social lizard; Scientific Reports
Family conflicts and the evolution of sociality in reptiles; Behavioral Ecology
Female aggression predicts mode of paternity acquisition in a social lizard; Proceedings of The Royal Society. Biological Sciences
Female allocation across the geographic range of a viviparous skink; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
Female promiscuity, mate familiarity and family dynamics; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
Female reproductive investment in response to male phenotype in wall lizards and its implications for introgression; Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Five Axes of Personality in a free-living lizard population; International Society of Behavioural Ecology (ISBE) conference
Foraging in a risky environment: a comparison of Bennett's wallabies Macropus rufogriseus rufogriseus (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) and red-bellied pademelons Thylogale billiardierii (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) in open habitats; Austral Ecology
Genetic differentiation predicts body size divergence between island and mainland populations of common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis); Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Genetic structure, diversity and distribution of a threatened lizard affected by widespread habitat fragmentation; Conservation Genetics
Genomic evidence for asymmetric introgression by sexual selection in the common wall lizard; Molecular Ecology
Giving offspring a head start in life: field and experimental evidence for selection on maternal basking behaviour in lizards; Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Habitat saturation influences offspring dispersal in Liopholis whitii; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
Habitat saturation promotes delayed dispersal in a social reptile; Behavioral Ecology
Habitat structure influences parent-offspring association in a social lizard; Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Habitat structure, mating behavior and social organisation in Liopholis whitii, an experimental test; Behaviour 2015 Conference
Habitat structure, promiscuity and social organisation in Liopholis whitii, an experimental test; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
Hatching asynchrony in birds: what can reptiles tell us?; International Evolution Meeting
Hatching asynchrony in reptiles - a potential link to the evolution of sociality; Animal Behaviour meeting
Human introductions create opportunities for intra-specific hybridization in an alien lizard; Biological Invasions
Identifying the costs benefits and incidences of parental care in a social lizard; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
Impact of fluctuating developmental temperatures on phenotypic traits in reptiles: a meta-analysis; The Journal of Experimental Biology
Individual telomere dynamics and their links to life history in a viviparous lizard; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences
Intrasexual male competition in a social lizard; Behaviour Conference 2011: The 48th Animal Behavior Society Meeting
Introduction pathway and climate trump ecology and life history as predictors of establishment success in alien frogs and toads; Ecology and Evolution
Invited Commentary: Why is ecotherm parental care so cold? a comment on Beekman et al.; Behavioral Ecology
Linking variation in behaviour to variation in fitness : social agressing, teritory size and mating system in a social lizard; 4th Australasian Evolution Society Meeting
Linking variation in behaviour to variation in fitness: social aggression, territory size, and mating system in a social lizard; International Evolution Meeting
Live bearing promotes the evolution of sociality in reptiles; Nature Communications
Long-lasting effects of among- but not within-litter timing in a viviparous lizard; Evolutionary Ecology Research
Loss of genetic diversity and increased embryonic mortality in non-native lizard populations; Molecular Ecology
Low food availability during gestation enhances offspring post-natal growth, but reduces survival, in a viviparous lizard; Oecologia
Low Incubation temperature induces DNA hypomethylation in lizard brains; Journal of Experimental Zoology: Part A
Male behaviour drives assortative reproduction during the initial stage of secondary contact; Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Mammals of Tasmania's Alpine Zones; The Abels: A Comprehensive Guide to Tasmania's Mountains over 1100m High, Volume 2
Marriage, death and divorce: insights from a social lizard; Australian Society of Herpetologists AGM Conference
Mate familiarity and social learning in a monogamous lizard; Oecologia
Mate familiarity influences social learning strategies in a monogamous lizard; 16th congress of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology
Maternal care in a social lizard: links between female aggression and offspring fitness; Animal Behaviour
Maternal effects impact decision-making in a viviparous lizard; Biology Letters
Maternal presence facilitates plasticity in offspring behavior: insights into the evolution of parental care; Behavioral Ecology
Multi-scale approach to understanding climate effects on offspring at birth and date of birth in a reptile; Integrative Zoology
Offspring performance and the adaptive benefits of prolonged pregnancy: experimental tests in a viviparous lizard; Functional Ecology
Oxidative stress physiology in relation to life history traits of a free-living vertebrate: the spotted snow skink, Niveoscincus ocellatus; Integrative Zoology
Patterns of developmental plasticity in response to incubation temperature in reptiles; Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology
Phylogeography and conservation genetics of the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, on islands at Its northern range; PLoS One
Plastic rates of development and the effect of thermal extremes on offspring fitness in a cold-climate viviparous lizard; Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology
Plasticity of thermoregulatory behavior in response to the thermal environment: a comparative test across specialist and generalist reptile species; Behaviour 2015 Conference
Plasticity of thermoregulatory behaviour in response to the thermal environment by widespread and alpine reptile species; Animal Behaviour
Polyandry, male care and the evolutionary origins of family living; Behaviour 2015 Conference
Population genetic differentiation and genomic signatures of adaptation to climate in an abundant lizard; Heredity
Population genomics of wall lizards reflects the dynamic history of the Mediterranean Basin; Molecular Biology and Evolution
Potential for thermal tolerance to mediate climate change effects on three members of a cool temperate lizard genus, Niveoscincus; Journal of Thermal Biology
Promiscuity resolves constraints on social mate choice imposed by population viscosity; Molecular Ecology
Quick guide: Egernia lizards; Current Biology
Quo vadis amphibia? Global warming and breeding phenology in frogs, toads and salamanders; Ecography
Reactive females: individual, annual and geographic variation in temperature effects on phenology; Australian Society of Herpetologists AGM Conference
Reactive females: individual, annual and geographic variation in temperature effects on phenology; Species on the Move
Regulatory changes in pterin and carotenoid genes underlie balanced color polymorphisms in the wall lizard; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Repeatable intra-individual variation in plasma testosterone concentration and its sex-specific link to aggression in a social lizard ; Hormones and Behavior
Repeatable intra-individual variation in Testosterone and sex specific links to aggressive personalities in a social lizard, Egernia whitii; Behaviour 2015 Conference
Reptiles of Tasmania's Alpine Zones; The Abels: A Comprehensive Guide to Tasmania's Mountains over 1100m High, Volume 2
Resource availability, but not polyandry, influences sibling conflict in a burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides; Behavioral Ecology
Resource distribution mediates social and mating behavior in a family living lizard; Behavioral Ecology
Scat on the doorstep: refuge choice in a group-living lizard is influenced by the presence of scat piles; Austral Ecology
Sex in a cold climate: predicting sex determination in snow skinks across Tasmania; Australian Sex Summit
Sex reversal explains some, but not all, climate-mediated sex ratio variation within a viviparous reptile; Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Sexual selection drives asymmetric introgression in wall lizards; Ecology Letters
Signatures of selection in embryonic transcriptomes of lizards adapting in parallel to cool climate; Evolution
Snow skinks (Niveoscincus ocellatus) do not shift their sex allocation patterns in response to mating history; Behaviour: An International Journal of Behaviourial Biology
Social and genetic architecture in a social lizard; Fifth World Congress of Herpetology
Sociality in Lizards; Comparative Social Evolution
Socioecology of the Australian Tree Skink (Egernia striolata); Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Some snow skinks like it hot; 8th Biannual Meeting of the Australasian Evolution Society
Spatial variation in gene flow across a hybrid zone reveals causes of reproductive isolation and asymmetric introgression in wall lizards; Evolution
Stable Social Grouping in Lizards; Behavior of Lizards: Evolutionary and Mechanistic Perspectives
Surviving and thriving? Climate change effects on widespread and alpine temperate lizard species; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
Tail loss and telomeres: consequences of large-scale tissue regeneration in a terrestrial ectotherm; Biology Letters
Temperature and telomeres: thermal treatment influences telomere dynamics through a complex interplay of cellular processes in a cold‑climate skink; Oecologia
Temporal variation in thermal plasticity in a free-ranging subalpine lizard; Journal of Thermal Biology
The causes and consequences of social organization in a reptile; British Herpetological Symposium
The causes and consequences of social organization in a reptile; British Herpetological Symposium 2011
The Causes and Consequences of Social Structuring in Egernia whitii; Implications for Understanding the Evolution of Sociality
The diversity of population responses to environmental change; Ecology Letters
The effect of personality on male-male interactions in a social lizard, Egernia whitii; Behaviour 2015 Conference
The effects of climate variation on phenological and life history traits in spotted snow skinks (Niveoscincus ocellatus) across its climatic range; Annual Meeting of the Australian Society of Herpetologist
The evolutionary ecology of family living in lizards; 16th congress of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology
The interplay between environment, aggression and fitness in a free living vertebrate; Ecological Society of Australia 2014 Annual Conference
The interplay between environment, aggression and fitness in a free living vertebrate; Ecological Society of Australia 2014 Annual Conference
The lizards and the bees: implementing bee tracking technology to unravel the social structure of lizard populations; Australian Society of Herpetologists Annual meeting
The potential role of phenotypic plasticity in buffering climate change in a viviparous lizard; 11th INTECOL Congress
The role of phenotypic plasticity in buffering climate change; First Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology
The role of size and aggression in intrasexual male competition in a social lizard species, Egernia whitii; Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
The scent of sun worship: basking experience alters scent mark composition in male lizards; Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
The thermal environment as a moderator of social evolution; Biological Reviews
Variation in social organization influences the opportunity for sexual selection in a social lizard ; Molecular Ecology
Variation in thermal biology of three closely related lizard species along an elevation gradient; Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Viviparous mothers impose stronger glucocorticoid-mediated maternal stress effects on their offspring than oviparous mothers; Ecology and Evolution
What can reptiles tell us about hatching processes in birds?; Annual Meeting, Society of Herpetologists
Widespread primary, but geographically restricted secondary, human introductions of wall lizards, Podarcis muralis; Molecular Ecology
Within-population variation in social strategies characterize the social and mating system of an Australian lizard, Egernia whitii ; Austral Ecology

Research Projects

Aggression and the evolutionary ecology of family living; Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASSAB)
Aggression and the evolutionary ecology of family living; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Behaviour, and the evolutionary ecology of social systems: linking aggression, population dynamics, and selection ; University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Behavioural plasticity and the origins of social living; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Can snow skinks survive climate change?; Ecological Society of Australia Limited (ESAI)
Can snow skinks survive climate change?; Foundation For National Parks and Wildlife (FNPW)
Climate change and early life processes as drivers of telomere and population dynamics; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Degrees of change: the evolutionary ecology of sex determination in shifting climates; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Disentangling the genetic drivers of manna quality in E. viminalis and its consequences for native ecosystem function; Australian Flora Foundation (AFF)
Female multiple mating and the evolutionary origins of complex societies; Australian Research Council (ARC)
Female multiple mating, male care and the origins of complex sociality; Australian Research Council (ARC)
Female promiscuity, environmental variation and the evolution of family living; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Forty-spotted Pardalote and manna gum: joining the spots to save an Australian endangered bird species.; Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC)
Genetic and Social Architecture in Egernia; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Hopeful or helpless: extinction risk under projected climate change in endemic snow skinks; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Live birth, recognising kin and the evolutionary origins of family life; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Live long and prosper: reproductive senescence in a viviparous skink; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Plasticity and the origins of family; Australian Research Council (ARC)
Potential impacts of climate change in Niveoscincus Ocellatus, a reptile with temperature dependent sex determination; Winifred Violet Scott Charitable Trust (WVS)
Secondary contact, genetic exchange and their consequences for evolutionary diversification; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Testing the causal relationship between ecology, promiscuity and social organisation in a lizard; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Testing the role of female promiscuity in evolutionary transitions to complex sociality; University of Tasmania (UTAS)
The eco-evolutionary dynamics of birthing asynchrony across the Egernia; Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment (HWRE)
Understanding the mechanisms underpinning complex sociality; Australian Research Council (ARC)
Unravelling the mechanisms of live birth; The Hermon Slade Foundation (HSF)

Research Candidate Supervision

Aggression as a Personality Trait in Egernia whitii- Mechanisms and Outcomes
Causes and Consequences of Intra-SpecificHybridization in a Non-Native Lizard
Identifying the Causal Relationship between Ecology, Promiscuity and Social Organisation in a Lizard Promiscuity and Social Organisation in a Lizard
Individual Behaviour as a Buffer to Climate Change? Linking Maternal Effects and Environmental Heterogeneity
Mother knows best- the how, when and why of sex allocation in snow skinks
Should I Mate or Should I Wait? The Morphology of Sperm Storage, and its Consequences for Sperm Viability and Mating Strategies in a Temperate Skink Species, Niveoscincus ocellatus
The role of aggressionfor the maintenance and evolution of social system