Fish Section Visitors 2022

Dr Tony Miskiewicz is a weekly visitor to the fish shop where he continues his dedicated research on larval fishes.

Tony's main research interests include the systematics of larvae from temperate Australia and the distribution of fish larvae in estuarine and coastal waters.

Tony is a valued member of the team, contributing to many research projects, assisting students and continuing his larval fish identifications. We are very proud to have Tony as one of our Research Associates.

Barry visited the Australian Museum early this year to continue his work on the fishes of FL de Castelnau. Francis Laporte de Castelnau was Consul General for France in Melbourne (1862-76) and Sydney (1876-78) and Barry is interested in the important type specimens (as dried skins) of Australian fishes collected, described and sent to the AMS in 1878 (registered in 1879 as A.7126 - A.7144) by Castelnau. We are very proud to call Barry a Research Associate with the Australian Museum Fish Section.

Ken Graham is a weekly visitor to the fish shop here at the Australian Museum where he continues his dedicated research into many many deep sea fish families specifically the family Macrouridae, commonly known as Rattails.

Ken was former scientific officer of the Fisheries Research vessel Kapala and is now a Research Associate in the fish section. Ken continues his fish identifications on many and varied families and contributing to many research projects and is a valued member of the fish team.

Graham regularly visits the fish section here at Australian Museum to continue his research into the phylogenetics, taxonomy, and systematics of fishes in the Syngnathidae family (seahorses, seadragons, pygmy pipehorses, and pipefish). Graham is a research associate at the Australian Museum, as well as the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the Burke Museum in Seattle.

Helen spent a long day with us examining, photographing and taking measurements of sharks from the family Scyliorhinidae (Catsharks), Pentanchidae (Deepwater Catsharks) Heterodontidae (Horn Sharks) and Parascylliidae (Collared Carpetsharks). Helen is a research assistant at the national fish collection at CSIRO, Hobart.

Dave, Gigi and Selma visited the fish shop to look at Common Seadragons Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. They are specifically interested in seadragon specimens from the collection that were found as beach washup and are comparing them to the 150+ specimens that have recently been washing up along the coast of NSW due to the recent east coast low storms. Photographs and sizes were taken for later comparisons. Dave, Gigi and Selma are from the Fish Ecology Lab at the University of Technology, Sydney

Hans recently visited the fish section for 3 weeks, working on Coloconger, Cleidopids (Pineapple fishes), Paralepidids (Barracudinas) and Ogcocephalids (Batfishes).

Hans is an Associate Researcher of the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium, Taiwan and Associate Professor, Institute of Marine Biology at the National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan. We are also very proud to call Hans a Research Associate of the Australia Museum Fish Section.

Hide and Kyoji visited the fish section for a week in July. Hide is currently a recipient of the JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Young Scientists and is based at the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History in Kanagawa, Japan. His research interests include the taxonomy of fishes from the families Carangidae - Trevallies, Malacanthidae - Tilefishes, Scorpaenidae -Scorpion fishes and Setarchidae - Deep Sea Scorpion fishes.

Kyoji is also a recipient of the JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Young Scientists and is based at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tsukuba, Japan. Kyoji’s research interests include the systematics of cryptobenthic fishes from the Indo-Pacific Ocean mainly clingfishes - Gobiesocidae, dottybacks - Pseudochromidae and gobies -Gobiidae.

It was a pleasure to have Hide and Kyoji visit the fish shop and we look forward to having them visit again soon.

Chris dropped into the fish shop to visit us in early August. We are proud to call Chris a research associate at the Australian Museum and he is a lecturer in marine biology at the University of Southampton.

Chris’ research aims to assess the functions, evolution and systematics of coral reef fishes. Working with the Fish Section, he is currently focussing on some of the smallest fishes in the sea, the gobies. Chris uses a combination of specialised collection techniques, micro-CT imaging and molecular tools to identify hidden diversity in this diverse and widespread group.

Recent fieldwork in the Coral Sea has begun to reveal several new species, including Tempestichthys bettyae (Betty’s ocean sleeper), a new genus and species in a family which previously had only been found in temperate marine ecosystems. Congratulations on this amazing taxonomy work Chris.

Courtney has become a regular in the fish section these past 6 months, spending her time looking at a genus of Goby fishes known as Gobiodon. A cute small Goby (less than 5cm) which creates its home specifically on certain species of coral. Courtney is a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong and is focusing on how coral complexity is related to the evolution of sociality in this coral dwelling fish. During her research on the social relationships of these cute fish Courtney may have come across some new species. She is here to examine our collection of specimens, compare, contrast and take many measurements, even some x-rays.

Doctoral student Junya Higuchi visited the fish section for a week in November 2022. Junya is studying the external morphology of members of the family Triglidae, more commonly known as Gurnards. Junya comes to us from the Laboratory of Marine Biology and Biodiversity (Systematic Ichthyology) in the Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences at Hokkaido University, Japan.

Shing-Lai (Terry) visited us in Dec 2022 to study sharks from the family Etmopteridae or Lantern sharks as they are more commonly known. Really really cool small deep water sharks that can glow in the dark, hence their common name of Lantern shark. Terry is a postgraduate student based at the National Taiwan Ocean University in the Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science.

Dr Tony Gill is a regular visitor to the fish shop here at the Australian Museum where he continues his prolific work on dottybacks, basslets and gobies and happily assists in any collection related queries and identifications.

Tony has been associated with the fish section of the Australian Museum for over 40 years, beginning with a student internship in 1981. After receiving his PhD from the University of New England in 1991, based on research conducted at the Museum, Tony was later a Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow in the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. and Lerner-Gray Research Fellow in the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Tony then moved to London where he was shallow marine fish researcher at the Natural History Museum, London, followed by museum curator in the School of Life Sciences and assistant director for collections in the International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University.

After returning to Australia in 2010 to take up the role of Natural History Curator at the Macleay Museum (now Macleay Collections, Chau Chak Wing Museum), Tony continued his research interests on the systematics and biogeography of Indo-Pacific fishes (particularly dottybacks, gobies and basslets), on the anatomy and classification of spiny-finned fishes, and on the history of natural history collections. Most recently, his research has concentrated on the systematics of Australian basslets (Anthiadinae).

We are very proud to call Tony a research associate of the fish section and look forward to seeing him more this year.