Melbourne Systematics Forum

A discussion group for topics in ecology, systematics and evolution

hosted by Museum Victoria Sciences Department

Previous meetings Melbourne Systematics Forum meetings 2001-2012

Previous meetings - 2012

Thursday 3 May 2012 6 pm Anna Syme and Franck Stefani Royal Botanic Gardens and Herbarium, Melbourne
Phylogenetic methods using Beast, R and Geneious

Previous meetings - 2011

Thursday 2 June 2011 6 pm
Kevin Rowe Museum Victoria
Diversification of rodents in Australia and Papua New Guinea

Thursday 7 July 2011 6 pm
Karen Bell National Herbarium of Victoria and Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Biogeography of plants and the insects that occur on them

[23-30 July 2011 XVIII International Botanical Congress, Melbourne]

Thursday 4 August 6 pm
Anna McCallum Museum Victoria
Decapod crustacean diversity along Australia's western continental margin

Thursday 1 September 6 pm

10th anniversary of the Melbourne Systematics Forum!

Andrew Hugall Department of Zoology, The University of Melbourne
Stitching-up big trees for biodiversity analysis

Thursday 6 October 6 pm
Ursula Smith Museum Victoria
Geometric morphometric character suites as phylogenetic data: Extracting phylogenetic signal from gastropod shells

Thursday 3 November 6 pm
Richard Marchant Museum Victoria and Ben Kefford (University of Technology, Sydney)
The response of stream invertebrate communities to catchment disturbance on Macquarie Island

NO MEETING December 2011
adjoining and clashing meetings in Adelaide and Melbourne:

[28 November to December 3, 2011 4th International Barcode of Life Conference, Adelaide]
[4-7 December 2011 10th Invertebrate Biodiversity & Conservation / Society of Australian Systematic Biologists Conference, Melbourne]

Previous meetings - 2010

Thurs 4 March 2010 6 pm
Mark Blacket Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation, The University of Melbourne
The origin and evolution of parthenogenesis through hybridisation of closely related species of grasshoppers, stick insects and geckos in the Australian Arid Zone

Thursday 1 April 2010
NO MEETING [since the first Thursday in April precedes Good Friday and many regular participants are travelling, we have opted to cancel the April meeting]

Thursday 6 May 2010 6 pm
David Orlovich Department of Botany, University of Otago, New Zealand
Can't see the forest for the trees: ectomycorrhizal fungi from a phylogenetic standpoint

Thursday 3 June 2010 6 pm
Erich Fitzgerald Museum Victoria
The rise and fall of Toothed Whale (Odontoceti) crown clades: explaining patterns of modern diversity

Thursday 1 July 2010 6 pm
Malte Ebach School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales
Biostrata: Viewing biotic areas in four dimensions

Thursday 5 August 2010 6 pm
Josh Hale Museum Victoria & The University of Melbourne
Why did the frog cross the road? Landscape and conservation genetics of the endangered Growling Grass Frog, Litoria raniformis

Thursday 2 September 2010 6 pm
Jo Browne Museum Victoria & Griffith University
Oh no, my jellyfish has worms! Investigating life cycles and host specificity of digenean parasites of gelatinous zooplankton using DNA.

October meeting CANCELLED

Thursday 4 November 2010 6 pm
Teresa Lebel Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
Multiple evolution of truffle form in the Russulales

Thursday 2 December 2010
No meeting<

Previous meetings - 2009

Thurs 5 March 2009 6 pm
Kyatt Dixon School of Botany, The University of Melbourne
The crustose red algal family Peyssonneliaceae from Vanuatu and southeastern Australia
Venue: Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

Thursday 2 April 2009
Gareth HolmesThe University of Melbourne, CESAR and School of Botany
Conservation biology of Grevillea repens

Thursday 7 May 2009 - CANCELLED (sorry)

Thursday 4 June 2009 - CANCELLED (sorry)

Thursday 2 July 2009
Pauline Ladiges School of Botany, The University of Melbourne
Eucalypts and east-west continental vicariance

Thursday 6 August 2009
Rebecca Bray Museum Victoria
Evolution and diversity of immune genes (MHC class II B) in a community of Australian songbirds
AND
Martin Gomon Museum Victoria and Bob Ward CSIRO Marine
Interrelationships of Australian Lepidotrigla (Pisces, Triglidae) - a genetic hypothesis

Thursday 3 September 2009
Andrew Drinnan School of Botany, The University of Melbourne
Evolution of land plant morphology: plant architecture based on primitive land plants

Thursday 1 October 2009
Adnan Moussalli Museum Victoria
A preliminary molecular phylogeny of cuttlefish - is our classification in order?

Thursday 5 November 2009 - CANCELLED

Thursday 3 December 2009 - CANCELLED (was to have been Mark Blacket Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation, The University of Melbourne
speaking on The origin and evolution of parthenogenesis through hybridisation of closely related species of grasshoppers, stick insects and geckos in the Australian Arid Zone but due to a clash with the Australian Systematic Botany Society meeting in Armidale, NSW, this will be rescheduled to a Thursday TBA in 2010.

Previous meetings - 2008

March-May 2008 - no Melbourne Systematics Forum meetings were held

5 June 2008 - Melbourne Systematics Forum
Kate Naughton (PhD student, The University of Melbourne and Museum Victoria)
Divergent reproductive mode reveals cryptic speciation in the Lesser Biscuit Star, Tosia australis

Thursday 7 August 2008, 6 pm
Gill Brown will provide an interim report co-authored with Pauline Ladiges and Gary Nelson (all from the School of Botany, The University of Melbourne), from a research network workshop on the Biogeography of the Australian Monsoon Tropics

[No September meeting]

Thursday 2 October 2008, 6 pm
Jim Mant (formerly ANU and postdoc at Geobotanical Institute, ETH Zürich)
Orchid-insect interactions
Thursday 6 November 2008, 6 pm
Gary Nelson School of Botany, The University of Melbourne
150 Years On: Wallace's Line Then and Now

There was no December 2008 meeting
Previous meetings - 2007
1 March 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum
Euan Ritchie (Postdoctoral Fellow, Herpetology, Museum Victoria)
Macropod macroecology: modelling the distribution and abundance of Australia’s tropical marsupial herbivores
Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

April 2007 - no Melbourne Systematics Forum meeting

3 May 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum
Mike Bayly, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne
Pseudogenes of ribosomal DNA: implications for phylogenetic analysis
Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

7 June 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum
Richard Marchant, Museum Victoria
The use of taxonomic distinctness to assess environmental disturbance of insect communities from running water
Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

[ 12-15 June 2007
Australasian Evolution Society 2007 Conference
The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales]
Winter recess - there was no July meeting Melbourne Systematics Forum
[ 9-13 July 2007
Australian Marine Sciences Association 2007 Conference
The University of Melbourne, Victoria]

2 August 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum
David Cantrill, Director of the National Herbarium of Victoria
Geological processes and biogeographic interpretation
Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

[ 27-31 August 2007
Systematics 2007: Sixth Biennial Conference of the Systematics Association
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, United Kingdom)]
6 September 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum meeting was cancelled

[ 23-26 September 2007
Australian Entomological Society 2007 Conference
Beechworth, Victoria]

[ 23-26 September 2007
Australian Systematic Botany Society 2007 Conference
Darwin, Northern Territory]
4 October 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum
Gary Nelson, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne
Biogeography and the molecular dating game: A futile revival of phenetics?
Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

[ 9-11 October 2007
Australian Coral Reef Society 2007 Conference
Fremantle, Western Australia]

1 November 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum
Gary Poore, Museum Victoria
Systematics in a changing world
Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

[ 26 - 30 November 2007
Ecological Society of Australia 2007 Conference
Perth, Western Australia]
6 December 2007, 6 pm - Melbourne Systematics Forum
Erich Fitzgerald Museum Victoria
Three and a half years in the belly of the whale: Reflections on the evolution of marine mammals and their role in southern ocean ecosystems
Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens

[ 2 - 5 December 2007
Australasian Ornithological Conference 2007
Perth, Western Australia]

[ 3 - 7 December 2007
joint meeting of the Australain Society for Limnology and the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society
Queenstown, New Zealand]

[ 3 - 7 December 2007
The combined 8th Invertebrate Biodiversity & Conservation / Society of Australian Systematic Biologists Conference at the Queensland Museum, Brisbane]

Previous meetings - 2006
6 April 2006
Richard Marchant (Senior Curator, Terrestrial Invertebrates, Museum Victoria)
The connection between regional and local species richness for stream invertebrates in Victoria

4 May 2006
Natalie Nagalingum (Duke University)
Using molecular divergence dating and fossils to estimate the age of heterosporous ferns

1 June 2006
Erich Fitzgerald (Museum Victoria)
Almost Like A Whale: Closing in on the final frontier of cetacean evolution

6 July 2006
Anna Syme (Museum Victoria)
Homoplasy: What is it good for?

3 August 2006
Peter Bernhardt (Professor of Biology, Saint Louis University)
North American and Chinese Lady's Slipper Orchids: A new look at the sexy and successful Cypripedium

7 September 2006
Jo Luck virologist, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria)
Differentiating plant bacterial pathovars

there was no meeting in October 2006

2 November 2006
Luke Shoo (postdoctoral researcher, Herpetology, Museum Victoria)
Montane rainforest birds in Australia’s wet tropics: future prospects in a warming world

7 December 2006
Michael Kearney, Jane Melville & Dan Murphy (The University of Melbourne, Museum Victoria and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne)
The origin and maintenance of the arid zone biota: what do we know?

Previous meetings - 2005
Thursday 3 March 2005
6 pm - Erich Fitzgerald (Museum Victoria): New toothed baleen whales from Victoria.
6:30 pm - John Long (Museum Victoria): Fabulous fossil fishes of Gogo.

7 April 2005
Raymond Tremblay (visiting scientist, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne)
Natural selection vs genetic drift: What are the causes of evolution in the Orchidaceae?

5 May 2005
Rod Jones (Department of Primary Industries, Victoria)
Basal clades in the fungal tree of life

2 June 2005
Andrew Stammer and Camilla Myers (CSIRO Publishing)
Electronic Publishing and Systematics: Linnaeus meets Bill Gates

7 July 2005
Paula Cisternas (Museum Victoria)
Larval development and systematics in ophiuroid echinoderms (brittle stars)

4 August 2005
Ian Pascoe (recently retired curator of Victorian Plant Disease Herbarium VPRI)
The influence of taxonomy on international trade

1 September 2005
Gareth Nelson (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne)
Paraphyly

6 October 2005
Frank Rheindt (Museum Victoria)
Speciation dynamics in the Australo-Papuan Region: The case of Meliphaga honeyeaters

10 November 2005
Michael Bayly and Alison Kellow (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa)
The Hebe complex (Plantaginaceae) in New Zealand: systematics and biogeography

Previous meetings - 2004
Thursday 4 March 2004, 6 pm
Jane Melville (Museum Victoria): Using comparative phylogenetics to investigate transcontinental community convergence in desert lizards

Thursday 1 April, 6 pm
John Wilkins (History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne) The Secret History of the Species Concept

Thursday 6 May 2004, 6 pm
Discussion of:
Dennis McCarthy 2003. The trans-Pacific zipper effect: disjunct sister taxa and matching geological outlines that link the Pacific margins. Journal of Biogeography, 30, 1545-1561

Thursday 3 June 2004
NO MEETING

Thursday 1 July 2004
NO MEETING

Thursday 5 August 2004, 6 pm
Robin Wilson (Museum Victoria): How old is the deep sea?

Thursday 2 September 2004, 6 pm
Gillian Brown (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne): The life and times of Vireya Rhododendrons in Malesia and neighbouring areas

Thursday 1 July 2004
NO MEETING

Thursday 7 October 2004, 6 pm
Mark O'Loughlin (Museum Victoria): Finding congruence between molecular and morphological phylogenies of Asterinidae seastars

Thursday 4 November 2004, 6 pm
Pauline Ladiges (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne): Biogeography of large genera of the Australian flora

Thursday 2 December 2004
NO MEETING

Previous meetings - 2003

3 April - Liza Miller (EPA Victoria): Population genetics of a scarab beetle - what can it tell us about evolution?

1 May - Joanne Taylor (Museum Victoria): Dealing with continuous characters and homoplasy in the Phoxocephalidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda).

5 June - Diane Rowe (Museum Victoria): A Cretaceous Origin for Rodents and Paleogene Trans-Oceanic Dispersals. A Glitch in Time or a Stone Unturned?

11 July - Jennifer Brisson (Washington University, St Louis): Local adaptation of abdominal pigmentation in Drosophila polymorpha.
AND
Michael Kearney (University of Sydney): Why give up sex in the desert?

7 August - Niels Klazenga (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne): On Alignment and Optimisation An abstract and reading list from Niels' talk has been posted to the recent topics page

4 September - Erich Fitzgerald (Museum Victoria): Oligocene Cetacea (Mammalia) from the southern margin of Australia

2 October - Brent Mishler (University of California Berkeley): Biodiversity isn't species: the tree of life, rank-free phylogenetic classification, and the future of bioinformatics & conservation [see: Further information for and against the Phylocode and rank-free classification]

6 November - Geoff McFadden (School of Botany, University of Melbourne): Did humans catch malaria from birds?

Wednesday 12 November 1 pm - Lindell Bromham (Centre for the Study of Evolution, University of East Sussex, UK): Molecular evolution and evolutionary radiations.

Monday 17 November 1 pm - David Lambert (Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, NZ): Ancient DNA Studies from the 'Southern End of the World.

4 December - Tim O'Hara (Museum Victoria): Gondwana: a marine myth?

Previous meetings - 2002
7 March 2002 - Mark Burgman (Director of Office for Environmental Programs, The University of Melbourne): The march of the cute and furry syndrome: political imperatives for species concepts.

2 May 2002 - John Wilkins (History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne): So many species [concepts] and only one world.
(A table in pdf summarises the 26 species concepts recognised by John Wilkins. Adobe Acrobat® Reader is a free download available from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.)

6 June 2002 - Frank Udovicic (Royal Botanic Gardens and Herbarium, Melbourne): Ringbarking our trees: why bother with the bootstrap and jackknife?

4 July 2002 - Rolf Schmidt (Department of Invertebrate Palaeontology, Museum Victoria): Biogeography of Eocene Bryozoans of the St Vincent Basin, South Australia.

25 July 2002 - Jeremy Austin (Department of Zoology & Entomology, The University of Queensland [now at the Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Museum Victoria]): Of islands, species and ancient DNA ... molecular perspectives on the evolution of insular faunas.

1 August 2002 - Josh Mackie (Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Museum Victoria): The influence of phylogenetic branching patterns on our understanding of population biology: how much information should we be harvesting from our trees?

5 September - Gary Poore (Museum Victoria Sciences Department): Illuminating relationships with fossils - an exercise with cave-dwelling crustaceans.

3 October 2002 - Dan Murphy (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne): Are we witnessing the death of morphology in phylogeny reconstruction?

7 November 2002 - Tom Rich (Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Museum Victoria): Affinities of the earliest Australian fossil mammals.

2 December 2002 - Ken Walker (Museum Victoria Sciences Department) & Peter Neish (Royal Botanic Gardens and Herbarium, Melbourne): Bioinformatics, virtual herbaria, virtual museums.

Previous meetings - 2001
The first meeting of the Melbourne Systematics Forum was in September 2001
6 September 2001 - Ed Newbigin (The Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne): From genomics to species

4 October 2001 - Ary A. Hoffmann (Director, Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, La Trobe University) - Integrated Pest Management and sustainability: a desperate need for systematics?

1 November 2001 - Malte Ebach (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne) & Robin Wilson (Museum Victoria): Historical biogeography - a test for earth history?

6 December 2001 - Mark McDonnell (Divisional Director, Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne): Taxonomic uncertainty and conservation: does it really matter?

the venue

2012 meeting calendar

documents

contact the organisers

previous meetings

The Melbourne Systematics Forum provides an opportunity for students, academics and others with an interest in systematic biology and related topics to discuss their research results and current ideas in an informal environment. Unless advised otherwise, meetings take place in The Discovery Centre, (previously called InfoZone) lower ground floor, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens, at 6 pm on the first Thursday of the month. Sessions commence with an introduction from the convenor, followed by an informal talk for about 20 minutes. Participants are encouraged to intervene and generate discussion. Meetings generally conclude after about 90 minutes, and everyone who attends a session is encouraged to actively participate.

	Melbourne Systematics Forum A discussion group for topics in ecology, systematics and evolution
	hosted by Museum Victoria Sciences Department
next meeting	Previous meetings Melbourne Systematics Forum meetings 2001-2012 Previous meetings - 2012 Thursday 3 May 2012 6 pm Anna Syme and Franck Stefani Royal Botanic Gardens and Herbarium, Melbourne Phylogenetic methods using Beast, R and Geneious Previous meetings - 2011 Thursday 2 June 2011 6 pm Kevin Rowe Museum Victoria Diversification of rodents in Australia and Papua New Guinea Thursday 7 July 2011 6 pm Karen Bell National Herbarium of Victoria and Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Biogeography of plants and the insects that occur on them [23-30 July 2011 XVIII International Botanical Congress, Melbourne] Thursday 4 August 6 pm Anna McCallum Museum Victoria Decapod crustacean diversity along Australia's western continental margin Thursday 1 September 6 pm 10th anniversary of the Melbourne Systematics Forum! Andrew Hugall Department of Zoology, The University of Melbourne Stitching-up big trees for biodiversity analysis Thursday 6 October 6 pm Ursula Smith Museum Victoria Geometric morphometric character suites as phylogenetic data: Extracting phylogenetic signal from gastropod shells Thursday 3 November 6 pm Richard Marchant Museum Victoria and Ben Kefford (University of Technology, Sydney) The response of stream invertebrate communities to catchment disturbance on Macquarie Island NO MEETING December 2011 adjoining and clashing meetings in Adelaide and Melbourne: [28 November to December 3, 2011 4th International Barcode of Life Conference, Adelaide] [4-7 December 2011 10th Invertebrate Biodiversity & Conservation / Society of Australian Systematic Biologists Conference, Melbourne] Previous meetings - 2010 Thurs 4 March 2010 6 pm Mark Blacket Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation, The University of Melbourne *The origin and evolution of parthenogenesis through hybridisation of closely related species of grasshoppers, stick insects and geckos in the Australian Arid Zone* Thursday 1 April 2010 NO MEETING [since the first Thursday in April precedes Good Friday and many regular participants are travelling, we have opted to cancel the April meeting] Thursday 6 May 2010 6 pm David Orlovich Department of Botany, University of Otago, New Zealand *Can't see the forest for the trees: ectomycorrhizal fungi from a phylogenetic standpoint* Thursday 3 June 2010 6 pm Erich Fitzgerald Museum Victoria *The rise and fall of Toothed Whale (Odontoceti) crown clades: explaining patterns of modern diversity* Thursday 1 July 2010 6 pm Malte Ebach School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales *Biostrata: Viewing biotic areas in four dimensions* Thursday 5 August 2010 6 pm Josh Hale Museum Victoria & The University of Melbourne Why did the frog cross the road? Landscape and conservation genetics of the endangered Growling Grass Frog, Litoria raniformis Thursday 2 September 2010 6 pm Jo Browne Museum Victoria & Griffith University Oh no, my jellyfish has worms! Investigating life cycles and host specificity of digenean parasites of gelatinous zooplankton using DNA. October meeting CANCELLED Thursday 4 November 2010 6 pm Teresa Lebel Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Multiple evolution of truffle form in the Russulales Thursday 2 December 2010 No meeting< Previous meetings - 2009 Thurs 5 March 2009 6 pm Kyatt Dixon School of Botany, The University of Melbourne *The crustose red algal family Peyssonneliaceae from Vanuatu and southeastern Australia* Venue: Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens Thursday 2 April 2009 Gareth HolmesThe University of Melbourne, CESAR and School of Botany Conservation biology of Grevillea repens Thursday 7 May 2009 - CANCELLED (sorry) Thursday 4 June 2009 - CANCELLED (sorry) Thursday 2 July 2009 Pauline Ladiges School of Botany, The University of Melbourne Eucalypts and east-west continental vicariance Thursday 6 August 2009 Rebecca Bray Museum Victoria Evolution and diversity of immune genes (MHC class II B) in a community of Australian songbirds *AND* Martin Gomon Museum Victoria and Bob Ward CSIRO Marine *Interrelationships of Australian Lepidotrigla* (Pisces, Triglidae) - a genetic hypothesis Thursday 3 September 2009 Andrew Drinnan School of Botany, The University of Melbourne Evolution of land plant morphology: plant architecture based on primitive land plants Thursday 1 October 2009 Adnan Moussalli Museum Victoria A preliminary molecular phylogeny of cuttlefish - is our classification in order? Thursday 5 November 2009 - CANCELLED Thursday 3 December 2009 - CANCELLED (was to have been Mark Blacket Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation, The University of Melbourne speaking on The origin and evolution of parthenogenesis through hybridisation of closely related species of grasshoppers, stick insects and geckos in the Australian Arid Zone but due to a clash with the Australian Systematic Botany Society meeting in Armidale, NSW, this will be rescheduled to a Thursday TBA in 2010. Previous meetings - 2008 March-May 2008 - no Melbourne Systematics Forum meetings were held 5 June 2008 - Melbourne Systematics Forum Kate Naughton** (PhD student, The University of Melbourne and Museum Victoria) Divergent reproductive mode reveals cryptic speciation in the Lesser Biscuit Star, Tosia australis Thursday 7 August 2008, 6 pm Gill Brown will provide an interim report co-authored with Pauline Ladiges and Gary Nelson (all from the School of Botany, The University of Melbourne), from a research network workshop on the Biogeography of the Australian Monsoon Tropics [No September meeting] Thursday 2 October 2008, 6 pm Jim Mant (formerly ANU and postdoc at Geobotanical Institute, ETH Zürich) Orchid-insect interactions Thursday 6 November 2008, 6 pm Gary Nelson School of Botany, The University of Melbourne 150 Years On: Wallace's Line Then and Now There was no December 2008 meeting Previous meetings - 2007 1 March 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum Euan Ritchie (Postdoctoral Fellow, Herpetology, Museum Victoria) Macropod macroecology: modelling the distribution and abundance of Australia’s tropical marsupial herbivores Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens April 2007 - no Melbourne Systematics Forum meeting 3 May 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum Mike Bayly, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne Pseudogenes of ribosomal DNA: implications for phylogenetic analysis Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens 7 June 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum Richard Marchant, Museum Victoria The use of taxonomic distinctness to assess environmental disturbance of insect communities from running water Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens [ 12-15 June 2007 Australasian Evolution Society 2007 Conference The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales] Winter recess - there was no July meeting Melbourne Systematics Forum [ 9-13 July 2007 Australian Marine Sciences Association 2007 Conference The University of Melbourne, Victoria] 2 August 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum David Cantrill, Director of the National Herbarium of Victoria Geological processes and biogeographic interpretation Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens [ 27-31 August 2007 Systematics 2007: Sixth Biennial Conference of the Systematics Association Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, United Kingdom)] 6 September 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum meeting was cancelled [ 23-26 September 2007 Australian Entomological Society 2007 Conference Beechworth, Victoria] [ 23-26 September 2007 Australian Systematic Botany Society 2007 Conference Darwin, Northern Territory] 4 October 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum Gary Nelson, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne Biogeography and the molecular dating game: A futile revival of phenetics? Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens [ 9-11 October 2007 Australian Coral Reef Society 2007 Conference Fremantle, Western Australia] 1 November 2007 - Melbourne Systematics Forum Gary Poore, Museum Victoria Systematics in a changing world Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens [ 26 - 30 November 2007 Ecological Society of Australia 2007 Conference Perth, Western Australia] 6 December 2007, 6 pm - Melbourne Systematics Forum Erich Fitzgerald Museum Victoria Three and a half years in the belly of the whale: Reflections on the evolution of marine mammals and their role in southern ocean ecosystems Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens [ 2 - 5 December 2007 Australasian Ornithological Conference 2007 Perth, Western Australia] [ 3 - 7 December 2007 joint meeting of the Australain Society for Limnology and the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society Queenstown, New Zealand] [ 3 - 7 December 2007 The combined 8th Invertebrate Biodiversity & Conservation / Society of Australian Systematic Biologists Conference at the Queensland Museum, Brisbane] Previous meetings - 2006 6 April 2006 Richard Marchant (Senior Curator, Terrestrial Invertebrates, Museum Victoria) The connection between regional and local species richness for stream invertebrates in Victoria 4 May 2006 Natalie Nagalingum (Duke University) Using molecular divergence dating and fossils to estimate the age of heterosporous ferns 1 June 2006 Erich Fitzgerald (Museum Victoria) Almost Like A Whale: Closing in on the final frontier of cetacean evolution 6 July 2006 Anna Syme (Museum Victoria) Homoplasy: What is it good for? 3 August 2006 Peter Bernhardt (Professor of Biology, Saint Louis University) North American and Chinese Lady's Slipper Orchids: A new look at the sexy and successful Cypripedium 7 September 2006 Jo Luck virologist, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria) Differentiating plant bacterial pathovars there was no meeting in October 2006 2 November 2006 Luke Shoo (postdoctoral researcher, Herpetology, Museum Victoria) Montane rainforest birds in Australia’s wet tropics: future prospects in a warming world 7 December 2006 Michael Kearney, Jane Melville & Dan Murphy (The University of Melbourne, Museum Victoria and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne) The origin and maintenance of the arid zone biota: what do we know? Previous meetings - 2005 Thursday 3 March 2005 6 pm - Erich Fitzgerald (Museum Victoria): New toothed baleen whales from Victoria. 6:30 pm - John Long (Museum Victoria): Fabulous fossil fishes of Gogo. 7 April 2005 Raymond Tremblay (visiting scientist, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne) Natural selection vs genetic drift: What are the causes of evolution in the Orchidaceae? 5 May 2005 Rod Jones (Department of Primary Industries, Victoria) Basal clades in the fungal tree of life 2 June 2005 Andrew Stammer and Camilla Myers (CSIRO Publishing) Electronic Publishing and Systematics: Linnaeus meets Bill Gates 7 July 2005 Paula Cisternas (Museum Victoria) Larval development and systematics in ophiuroid echinoderms (brittle stars) 4 August 2005 Ian Pascoe (recently retired curator of Victorian Plant Disease Herbarium VPRI) The influence of taxonomy on international trade 1 September 2005 Gareth Nelson (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne) Paraphyly 6 October 2005 Frank Rheindt (Museum Victoria) *Speciation dynamics in the Australo-Papuan Region: The case of Meliphaga* honeyeaters 10 November 2005 Michael Bayly and Alison Kellow (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) The Hebe complex (Plantaginaceae) in New Zealand: systematics and biogeography Previous meetings - 2004 Thursday 4 March 2004, 6 pm Jane Melville (Museum Victoria): Using comparative phylogenetics to investigate transcontinental community convergence in desert lizards Thursday 1 April, 6 pm John Wilkins (History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne) The Secret History of the Species Concept Thursday 6 May 2004, 6 pm Discussion of:** Dennis McCarthy 2003. The trans-Pacific zipper effect: disjunct sister taxa and matching geological outlines that link the Pacific margins. Journal of Biogeography, 30, 1545-1561 Thursday 3 June 2004 NO MEETING Thursday 1 July 2004 NO MEETING Thursday 5 August 2004, 6 pm Robin Wilson (Museum Victoria): How old is the deep sea? Thursday 2 September 2004, 6 pm Gillian Brown (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne): *The life and times of Vireya* Rhododendrons in Malesia and neighbouring areas Thursday 1 July 2004 NO MEETING Thursday 7 October 2004, 6 pm Mark O'Loughlin (Museum Victoria): Finding congruence between molecular and morphological phylogenies of Asterinidae seastars Thursday 4 November 2004, 6 pm Pauline Ladiges (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne): Biogeography of large genera of the Australian flora Thursday 2 December 2004 NO MEETING Previous meetings - 2003 3 April - Liza Miller (EPA Victoria): Population genetics of a scarab beetle - what can it tell us about evolution? 1 May - Joanne Taylor (Museum Victoria): Dealing with continuous characters and homoplasy in the Phoxocephalidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda). 5 June - Diane Rowe (Museum Victoria): A Cretaceous Origin for Rodents and Paleogene Trans-Oceanic Dispersals. A Glitch in Time or a Stone Unturned? 11 July - Jennifer Brisson (Washington University, St Louis): Local adaptation of abdominal pigmentation in Drosophila polymorpha. AND Michael Kearney (University of Sydney): Why give up sex in the desert? 7 August - Niels Klazenga (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne): On Alignment and Optimisation An abstract and reading list from Niels' talk has been posted to the recent topics page 4 September - Erich Fitzgerald (Museum Victoria): Oligocene Cetacea (Mammalia) from the southern margin of Australia 2 October - Brent Mishler (University of California Berkeley): Biodiversity isn't species: the tree of life, rank-free phylogenetic classification, and the future of bioinformatics & conservation [see: Further information for and against the Phylocode and rank-free classification] 6 November - Geoff McFadden (School of Botany, University of Melbourne): Did humans catch malaria from birds? Wednesday 12 November 1 pm - Lindell Bromham (Centre for the Study of Evolution, University of East Sussex, UK): Molecular evolution and evolutionary radiations. Monday 17 November 1 pm - David Lambert (Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, NZ): Ancient DNA Studies from the 'Southern End of the World. 4 December - Tim O'Hara (Museum Victoria): Gondwana: a marine myth? Previous meetings - 2002 7 March 2002 - Mark Burgman (Director of Office for Environmental Programs, The University of Melbourne): The march of the cute and furry syndrome: political imperatives for species concepts. 2 May 2002 - John Wilkins (History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne): So many species [concepts] and only one world. (A table in pdf summarises the 26 species concepts recognised by John Wilkins. Adobe Acrobat® Reader is a free download available from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.) 6 June 2002 - Frank Udovicic (Royal Botanic Gardens and Herbarium, Melbourne): Ringbarking our trees: why bother with the bootstrap and jackknife? 4 July 2002 - Rolf Schmidt (Department of Invertebrate Palaeontology, Museum Victoria): Biogeography of Eocene Bryozoans of the St Vincent Basin, South Australia. 25 July 2002 - Jeremy Austin (Department of Zoology & Entomology, The University of Queensland [now at the Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Museum Victoria]): Of islands, species and ancient DNA ... molecular perspectives on the evolution of insular faunas. 1 August 2002 - Josh Mackie (Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Museum Victoria): The influence of phylogenetic branching patterns on our understanding of population biology: how much information should we be harvesting from our trees? 5 September - Gary Poore (Museum Victoria Sciences Department): Illuminating relationships with fossils - an exercise with cave-dwelling crustaceans. 3 October 2002 - Dan Murphy (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne): Are we witnessing the death of morphology in phylogeny reconstruction? 7 November 2002 - Tom Rich (Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Museum Victoria): Affinities of the earliest Australian fossil mammals. 2 December 2002 - Ken Walker (Museum Victoria Sciences Department) & Peter Neish (Royal Botanic Gardens and Herbarium, Melbourne): Bioinformatics, virtual herbaria, virtual museums. Previous meetings - 2001 The first meeting of the Melbourne Systematics Forum was in September 2001 6 September 2001 - Ed Newbigin (The Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne): From genomics to species 4 October 2001 - Ary A. Hoffmann (Director, Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, La Trobe University) - Integrated Pest Management and sustainability: a desperate need for systematics? 1 November 2001 - Malte Ebach (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne) & Robin Wilson (Museum Victoria): Historical biogeography - a test for earth history? 6 December 2001 - Mark McDonnell (Divisional Director, Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne): Taxonomic uncertainty and conservation: does it really matter?**
the venue
2012 meeting calendar

documents

contact the organisers
previous meetings	The Melbourne Systematics Forum provides an opportunity for students, academics and others with an interest in systematic biology and related topics to discuss their research results and current ideas in an informal environment. Unless advised otherwise, meetings take place in The Discovery Centre, (previously called InfoZone) lower ground floor, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens, at 6 pm on the first Thursday of the month. Sessions commence with an introduction from the convenor, followed by an informal talk for about 20 minutes. Participants are encouraged to intervene and generate discussion. Meetings generally conclude after about 90 minutes, and everyone who attends a session is encouraged to actively participate.