Early Vertebrate Research Group

Current Students

Corinne Mensforth (PhD student)

The fish-tetrapod transition: new polar region Devonian stem-tetrapod fish and their anatomical insights

M. Ramon Fritzen (PhD student)

Diversity, Palaeoecology and Evolution of Fossil Lungfishes from Australia

Austin Fitzpatrick (PhD student)

Macroevolutionary trends in arthrodires (stem gnathostomes): what drove their success?

Joshua Batt (PhD student)

Origins, evolution and extinctions of the Rhizodontid fishes (Sarcopterygii)

HANNAH THIELE

Honours Student (2025)

Quantifying shape and volume changes in the skulls and brains of the Australian Lungfish through ontogeny

DYLAN SLINN

Honours Student (2025)

Morphometric and phylogenetic analysis of poorly-known tetrapod-like fish (‘osteolepiforms’), using skulls revealed via Computed Tomography

Past Students

OLIVIA HYNES

Honours Student (2024-2025)

Assessing the relationship between brains, cranial endocasts, and ecology in living snakes and their application to fossil species

JOSHUA BATT

Honours Student (2024)

Description of new rhizodontid fish material (Tetrapodomorpha, Sarcopterygii) from “Romer’s gap” (Tournaisian) of the Ballagan Formation (Scotland, UK), and implications for their post-Hangenberg recovery.

AUSTIN FITZPATRICK

Honours Student (2023)

Systematics and biogeography of the placoderm Groenlandaspis in the Middle Devonian of Mount Howitt, Victoria, Australia.

JOSHUA BLAND

Honours Student (2022-2023)

Biting off more than you can chew: Using finite-element analysis to interpret feeding biomechanics of Devonian lungfish jaws

PETAR TOMIC

Masters Student (2021-2023)

Redescription and systematics of the genus Torosteus (Arthrodira; Placodermi)

Honours Student (2019-2020)

A new eubrachythoracid arthrodire (Pisces; Placodermi from Gogo, Western Australia. Systematics, phylogenetics and Biogeography of the new ‘eastmanosteid’

PHOEBE MCINERNEY

Honours Student (2018)

Analysis of Syrinx, Hyoid, and Larynx Morphology in the Southern Cassowary, Casuarius casuarius, (Aves, Palaeognathae) and Implications for Palaeognath Phylogeny.