Father Christmas came early this year! Our Discovery Grant “The Devonian Gogo Fauna: Diversity, Palaeoecology and Global Significance” from the Australian Research Council (ARC) was funded! This grant gives us three years of funding for research and to support students and other staff associated with the project.
John Long (Flinders Uni), Kate Trinajstic (Curtin Uni) and I are Chief Investigators, and we’ll be collaborating with a fantastically diverse range of international partner investigators including Carole Burrow (Queensland Museum), Per Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Derek Briggs (Yale University), Zerina Johanson (Natural History Museum London), Christian Klug (University of Zurich) and Richard Cloutier (University of Quebec).
The Late Devonian Gogo Fm. in Western Australia (380 myo) is one of the richest and best-preserved assemblages of fossil fishes & invertebrates on Earth. We will reconstruct the trophic relationships of the reef and test the resilience of the ancient reef ecosystem.
Additionally, we will work with local indigenous stakeholders to assess the heritage significance of the site. We aim to develop a long-term management plan to protect and conserve this amazing site and help to grow geotourism in the region.
I believe that Gogo is the best fossil fish site in the world and I can’t wait to get back there in the coming years with our collaborators, and see what we can achieve with this crack team of researchers we’ve assembled. Merry Christmas to us, indeed!
Dr Alice Clement 