Suzanne Hand

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Suzanne J. Hand AO FRSN (born 1955) is Professor Emeritus at the University of New South Wales, a teacher of geology and biology, who has a special interest in vertebrate palaeontology and modern mammals. Her research has been published in over 250 articles and books, and is especially focused on the subjects of evolutionary biology, functional morphology, phylogenetics, and biogeography. Hand is a co-leader of the research team investigating the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, regarded as one of the four most important sites of fossil-bearing formations in the world. [1] [2]

Hand has described and named more than 140 new fossil taxa, including a new order, families, tribes, genera and species of monotremes, marsupials, bats, birds, reptiles and frogs. Amongst the recognition of Hand's contributions is the specific epithet of a fossil species of bird, Eoanseranas handae , discovered in the Riversleigh fossil sites. [3]

Hand was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to palaeontology and zoology, particularly as a fossil bat and marsupial researcher, and to tertiary education". [4] She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 2015. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Obdurodon</i> Extinct genus of monotremes

Obdurodon is a genus of extinct platypus-like Australian monotreme which lived from the Late Oligocene to the Late Miocene. Three species have been described in the genus, the type species Obdurodon insignis, plus Obdurodon dicksoni and Obdurodon tharalkooschild. The species appeared much like their modern day relative the platypus, except adults retained their molar teeth, and unlike the platypus, which forages on the lakebed, they may have foraged in the water column or surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peramelemorphia</span> Order of mammals

The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies. All members of the order are endemic to Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very large upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. Their size varies from about 140 grams up to 4 kilograms, but most species are about one kilogram.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bandicoot</span> Marsupial endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region

Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago to the east and Seram and Halmahera to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riversleigh World Heritage Area</span> UNESCO World Heritage Site in Queensland, Australia

Riversleigh World Heritage Area is Australia's most famous fossil location, recognised for the series of well preserved fossils deposited from the Late Oligocene to more recent geological periods. The fossiliferous limestone system is located near the Gregory River in the north-west of Queensland, an environment that was once a very wet rainforest that became more arid as the Gondwanan land masses separated and the Australian continent moved north. The approximately 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi) area has fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds, and reptiles of the Oligocene and Miocene ages, many of which were discovered and are only known from the Riversleigh area; the species that have occurred there are known as the Riversleigh fauna.

<i>Dromornis</i> Extinct genus of birds

Dromornis is a genus of large to enormous prehistoric birds native to Australia during the Oligocene to Pliocene epochs. The species were flightless, possessing greatly reduced wing structures but with large legs, similar to the modern ostrich or emu. They were likely to have been predominantly, if not exclusively, herbivorous browsers. The male of the largest species, Dromornis stirtoni, is a contender for the tallest and heaviest bird, and possibly exhibited aggressive territorial behaviour. They belong to the family Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds known as mihirungs.

Andrew Cockburn FAA is an Australian evolutionary biologist who has been based at the Australian National University in Canberra since 1983. He has worked and published extensively on the breeding behaviour of antechinuses and superb fairy-wrens, and more generally on the biology of marsupials and cooperative breeding in birds. His work on fairy-wrens is based around a detailed long-term study of their curious mating and social system at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monotreme</span> Order of egg-laying mammals

Monotremes are mammals of the order Monotremata. They are the only known group of living mammals that lay eggs, rather than bearing live young. The extant monotreme species are the platypus and the four species of echidnas. Monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brains, jaws, digestive tract, reproductive tract, and other body parts, compared to the more common mammalian types. Although they are different from almost all mammals in that they lay eggs, like all mammals, the female monotremes nurse their young with milk.

Professor Michael Archer AM, FAA, Dist FRSN is an Australian paleontologist specialising in Australian vertebrates. He is a professor at the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales. His previous appointments include Director of the Australian Museum 1999–2004 and Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales 2004–2009.

Naraboryctes philcreaseri is a fossil species of marsupial found at early Miocene deposits of Boodjamulla National Park of Riversleigh area, northwestern Queensland, Australia.

Malleodectes is an extinct genus of unusual marsupial, first discovered in 2011 at Riversleigh, Queensland, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Bathans fauna</span> Fossil deposit from the Early Miocene period in Central Otago, New Zealand

The St Bathans fauna is found in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group of Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It comprises a suite of fossilised prehistoric animals from the late Early Miocene (Altonian) period, with an age range of 19–16 million years ago.

Cookeroo is a genus of extinct kangaroos from the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene found in fossil deposits from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, in Australia. The genus includes two species, C. bulwidarri and C. hortusensis.

Hypsiprymnodon karenblackae is a fossil species describing a small marsupial extant in Australia during the Early to Middle Miocene Epoch. The material was collected at the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh). The taxon was published in 2014, along with several other new species of the genus Hypsiprymnodon, known as musky rat-kangaroos. The morphology of the teeth suggest it existed in a wet rainforest environment, similar to the ecological conditions of the extant species, the musky rat-kangaroo. The type specimen was collected at the Camel Sputum site, classified as a Faunal Zone B (Miocene) deposit at Riversleigh in northwestern Queensland, The epithet is for Dr. Karen Black's contribution to palaeontology in Australia, especially the Riversleigh fossils.

Riversleigh fauna is the collective term for any species of animal identified in fossil sites located in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area.

Xenorhinos halli is a species of bat that existed in the early Miocene. It was discovered at a fossil deposit of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in the north of Australia.

Macroderma koppa is a species of bat known from fossil material found in Australia, one of the larger carnivorous megadermatid family of the order Chiroptera. They resembled the modern species Macroderma gigas, known as a false vampire or ghost bat, and also preyed on vertebrates such as small mammals, reptiles and bird, and amphibian species, whose butchered remains were found beneath their feeding roosts.

Macroderma godthelpi is a species of bat known from fossil material found in Australia, one of the larger carnivorous megadermatid family of the order Chiroptera. They resembled the modern species Macroderma gigas, known as a false vampire or ghost bat, although significantly smaller than any other species of Macroderma.

<i>Propalorchestes</i> Extinct genus of marsupials

Propalorchestes is a fossil genus of palorchestid marsupial that existed in Australia during the Miocene epoch.

Karen H. Black, born about 1970, is a palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales. Black is the leading author on research describing new families, genera and species of fossil mammals. She is interested in understanding faunal change and community structure in order to gain new understandings of past, current and future changes in biodiversity which are driven by climate.

Lekaneleo roskellyae is a fossil species of carnivorous marsupial that existed during the early Miocene in Australia. Once allied to the type species of the genus Priscileo, later placed as Wakaleo pitikantensis, "Priscileo" roskellyae was subsequently transferred to its own genus Lekaneleo.

References

  1. "Assoc. Prof. Suzanne Hand". Riversleigh News and Faunal Encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  2. Long, John A.; Archer, Michael (2002). Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. UNSW Press. p. 187. ISBN   9780868404356.
  3. Worthy, Trevor H.; Scanlon, J.D. (2009). "An Oligo-Miocene Magpie Goose (Aves: Anseranatidae) from Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (1): 205–211. doi:10.1671/039.029.0103. S2CID   129930435.
  4. "Emeritus Professor Suzanne Joan Hand". Australian Honours Search Facility. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  5. "Suzanne Hand, Fellow (2015) : Sydney". Royal Society of New South Wales. Retrieved 21 July 2024.