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Australian mammals: Curious sex and reproduction
15 August 2006

Introduction

Professor Kurt Lambeck: Good evening. I'm Kurt Lambeck, the President of the Australian Academy of Science, and I welcome you all to the first lecture in the series The origin of species: the Australian connection. This series, run by the Academy, will culminate with a celebration of the 300th anniversary of Carl Linnaeus's birth.

This lecture series has come about for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that we have this 300th anniversary. And why Linnaeus? It is through his pupil, Daniel Solander, that the connection with Australia was made. Solander was on the ship with Banks, and because of his first-hand knowledge of the system of classification - nomenclature - for plants and animals, he and Banks were able to establish the Australian flora on the Linnaean system right from the very beginning. And that is one of the things that we will be celebrating next year.

The second reason the Academy is holding this lecture series is because of the concerns we have about the 'intelligent design' issues that are being introduced in some schools, even if not in core science areas then in other ways. This lecture series aims to highlight evolution at work, using Australia's flora, fauna and, to a lesser degree, geology, with very much emphasis on the science.

So without further ado, what better way to start such a lecture series than with Professor Jenny Graves and Dr Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe.

Our first speaker, Jenny Graves, has a highly acclaimed international reputation for her work in mammalian genetics and comparative genomics on Australian marsupials and monotremes. I never realised that the sex life of mammals was such fun until I heard Jenny talk about it.

Her research has raised profound questions about human biology and mammalian evolution, and she has made extensive groundbreaking discoveries relating to the cell cycle, control of DNA replication, evolution of the mammalian genome, and the function and evolution of sex chromosomes.

Jenny was selected as the 2006 Laureate for the Asia Pacific region of the L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science. She is the Research Director at the Australian Research Council's Centre for Kangaroo Genomics.

I would also like to introduce our second speaker, Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe.

Hugh is one of Australia's leading marsupial biologists. (I think we have at least three in this country, two of whom are speaking to us tonight.) His extensive research on reproductive physiology of marsupials, particularly the endocrine control of breeding, has led to an understanding of the mechanisms regulating seasonal breeding, lactation and ovarian function.

He was Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Rangelands Research, and in 1987 he was awarded the CSIRO Medal for his work on the reproductive physiology of marsupials. He was also Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Biological Control of Vertebrate Pest Populations, where his research was focused on new methods of controlling rabbits and foxes.

Hugh has been and continues to be a prolific author, and has written important works including Life of Mammals, Reproductive Physiology of Marsupials (with Marilyn Renfree, the third marsupial biologist I was referring to), and in 2005 he wrote Life of Marsupials.

So, Hugh will take over from Jenny, and then we will have questions at the end. Jenny, over to you.

Jenny Marshall Graves
Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe