Analysis of mitochondrial DNA clarifies the taxonomy and distribution of the Australian snubfin dolphin (Orcaella heinsohni) in northern Australian waters

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 1303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Palmer ◽  
Stephen A. Murphy ◽  
Deborah Thiele ◽  
Guido J. Parra ◽  
Kelly M. Robertson ◽  
...  

Conservation management relies on being able to identify and describe species. Recent morphological and molecular analyses of the dolphin genus Orcaella show a species-level disjunction between eastern Australia and South-east Asia. However, because of restricted sampling, the taxonomic affinities of the geographically intermediate populations in the Northern Territory and Western Australia remained uncertain. We sequenced 403 base pairs of the mitochondrial control region from five free-ranging Orcaella individuals sampled from north-western Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Low net nucleotide divergence (0.11–0.67%) among the Australian Orcaella populations show that populations occurring in the Northern Territory and Western Australia belong to the Australian snubfin (O. heinsohni) rather than the Asian Irrawaddy dolphin (O. brevirostris). Clarifying the distribution of Orcaella is an important first step in the conservation and management for both species; however, an understanding of the metapopulation structure and patterns of dispersal among populations is now needed.

1966 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 259 ◽  
Author(s):  
KG McKenzie

Freshwater ostracodes from the Northern Territory and the Kimberleys, Western Australia, are described. They comprise 17 species of which 6 are new: Cyprinotus kimberleyensis, Zsocypris williamsi, "Strandesia" dorsoviridis, Candonocypris Jitzroyi, Cypretta baylyi, and Cypretta lutea. The ostracodes include the first records from Australia of Isocypris, Strandesia, and Heinicypris, and exhibit affinities with those of eastern Australia, Indonesia, and South Africa.


2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 565 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. Pfeil ◽  
L. A. Craven

Three new taxa of Glycine are described, namely Glycine pullenii B.E.Pfeil, Tindale & Craven and G.�aphyonota B.E.Pfeil from Bungle Bungle-Purnululu National Park, Western Australia, and G. hirticaulis subsp. leptosa B.E.Pfeil from the Top End of the Northern Territory. A key to Glycine Willd. in north-western Australia is provided. A range extension for G. falcata Benth. is noted.


2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. A. Craven ◽  
F. D. Wilson ◽  
P. A. Fryxell

Recent collections have extended significantly the known morphological diversity in Hibiscus sect. Furcaria in north-western Australia. This additional knowledge required a review of the taxonomy, as a result of which several new taxa are described, namely H. aneuthe, H. aphelus, H. bacalusius, H. fallax, H. fryxellii var. mollis, H. inimicus, H. kenneallyi, H. marenitensis, H. petherickii, H. reflexus, H. riceae, H. squarrulosus, H.�stewartii and H. thegaleus. Hibiscus mustiae is included in H. zonatus. An identification key, synoptic treatments and distribution maps are provided for all taxa occurring in the region. In addition, all new taxa are described and all, with the exception of H. thegaleus, are illustrated. An exsiccatae list is provided.


1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
MD Tindale ◽  
PG Kodela

Acacia valida, a new species of Acacia subgenus Acacia from the northern parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia is described and illustrated. A lectotype is selected for Acacia pachyphloia and two subspecies are recognised. Acacia pachyphloia subsp. pachyphloia occurs in the Northern Territory and north Western Australia, and A. pachyphloia subsp. brevipirznula subsp. nov. occurs in north Western Australia.


1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 135 ◽  
Author(s):  
MJ Tyler ◽  
AA Martin ◽  
M Davies

The new leptodactylid genus Megistolotis and new species Megistolotis lignarius are described from localities in northern Western Australia and the Northern Territory. M. lignarius inhabits scree slopes and escarpments. The male mating call is a single note resembling the striking of timber. The spawn clump is a foam nest anchored to stones at the edge of small, temporary pools, and the tadpoles have intense black bodies and fins, and suctorial mouths. Megistolotis is most closely related to the limnodynastine genera Limnodynastes and Heleioporus.


1986 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 611 ◽  
Author(s):  
RV Southcott

The Australian larvae of the genus Trombella Berlese, 1887 (Acarina : Trombidioidea : Trombellidae) are revised. All six known species are Australian, five new, the larva having been correlated with adult and deutonymphal forms by the earlier rearing to deutonymphs of larvae of Trombella alpha Southcott, 1985 obtained from the field cricket Teleogryllus commodus (Walker) in New South Wales. The five new species of larvae are: T. cucumifera, sp. nov.; T. fusiformis, sp. nov.; T, rugosa, sp. nov.; T. sternutor, sp. nov.; and T. calabyi sp. nov.; they have all been obtained by a systematic survey of the ectoparasitic mites of Australian grasshoppers. T. cucumifera occurs in the northern part of Western Australia, in the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales; T. fusiformls in the northern part of Western Australia, and the northern parts of the Northern Territory and Queensland; T. rugosa and T. sternutor in the south-western part of Western Australia; T. calabyi is recorded from a single specimen in north- western Western Australia. Correlation studies are made on the metric characters of T. cucumifera, T. fusiformis and T. rugosa. In each species there was a significant excess of positive correlations between many of the metric variates used, within and between the groups of variates for scutal, idiosomal setal and leg variates. There appeared to be a tendency for a greater excess of these correlations within character groups than between characters of different groups.


1987 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Baehr

The Australian species of the trechine genus Perileptus are revised and compared in a key. Perileptus convexicollis, sp. nov., P. subopacus, sp. nov., and P. minimus, sp. nov., all from northern or northwestern Australia, are described, and the subgenus Pyrrhotachys Sloane is reestablished. The species distribution is mapped. Patterns of distribution and the phylogenetic status of the species suggest at least two independent westward migrations, of different lineages and presumably at different times, within Australia, resulting in the evolution of several endemic species in refugia in northern or north-western Australia. As a consequence, the Perileptus fauna of Western Australia is today more diverse than that of eastern Australia, in spite of the rather unsuitable environmental conditions in the north-western refugia.


1976 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
HJ Frith ◽  
TO Wolfe ◽  
RD Barker

Crop or gizzard contents were studied for Columbidae from north of Western Australia, Northern Territory, south of Southern Australia and Waigani Swamp near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Food was mainly seeds, listed in tables by botanical name, volume and frequency or by the number of gizzards or crops in which each was found. Some species ate small amounts of vegetative parts or insects.Results for Geopelia humeralis (bar-shouldered dove) and Geopelia striata (peaceful dove) suggest difference in feeding habitat though they were collected together from Waigani Swamp or subcoastal Northern Territory. Results for Petrophassa albipennis (white-quilled rock pigeon) and Phaps histrionica (flock pigeon) from north Western Australia and Northern Territory suggested an effect of drought on composition of feed. Other species studied were Geopelia cuneata (diamond dove), Geophaps smithii (partridge pigeon), Phaps elegans (brush bronzewing) and Petrophassa rufipennis (chestnut-quilled rock pigeon).


2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 145-150
Author(s):  
Patrick Webster ◽  
◽  
Henry Stoetzel ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  

The Chestnut-backed Button-quail Turnix castanotus is widely distributed in monsoonal tropical woodland but previously known only from the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Here we provide the first verified record in Queensland. We observed at least eight birds during October and November 2020 at Westmoreland Station, which is located in far north-western Queensland. These observations represent a significant (~215 km) easterly range extension and are the first confirmed records of this species for Queensland. Chestnut-backed Button-quail had gone undetected in Queensland likely owing to the difficulty in locating and identifying button-quail generally and the low number of birdwatchers in the region. A potential record made by W.R. McLennan in 1910 may represent a previously unreported record of this species in Queensland. Here we describe our observations in 2020 and the habitat where the species was recorded.


Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2550 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARION ANSTIS ◽  
MICHAEL J. TYLER ◽  
J. DALE ROBERTS ◽  
LUKE C. PRICE ◽  
PAUL DOUGHTY

We describe a small hylid frog species with a highly distinctive tadpole from the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. The new taxon is morphologically very similar to Litoria meiriana but can be differentiated using a combination of adult and larval morphology and male calls. Tadpoles of the new taxon can be readily differentiated from those of L. meiriana by their unique black, gold and red pigment patterns and the continuous papillary border around the oral disc. Advertisement calls of L. aurifera sp. nov. are longer, have more pulses, have more marked frequency modulation and are produced at a lower rate than those of L. meiriana. Litoria aurifera sp. nov. is only known from locations up to about 100 km south of the Prince Regent River and is associated with small creeks on massive sandstone escarpments, while L. meiriana is widespread in escarpments across northern Western Australia and the northern part of the Northern Territory.


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