Matthew R Mccurry

• PhD, B.Sc
• Curator, Palaeontology at Australian Museum

Osmeriformes represent an important component of freshwater ecosystems in Australia and New Zealand and yet are poorly represented in the fossil record in these countries. Here we describe a new species of fossil osmeriform from the Miocene of New South Wales. Australia. Phylogenetic analyses place the species as an early diverging member of the so...

Longhorn beetles (family Cerambycidae) are globally distributed insects with important ecological roles. Here we present the first discovery of fossil longhorn beetles from Australia. The two new taxa described, Ventiala beattiei gen. et sp. nov. and Ferrucornus gulgongensis gen. et sp. nov. are from McGraths Flat, New South Wales, a finely-layered...

We describe a diverse aquatic insect assemblage from McGraths Flat, a Miocene Lagerstätte in central New South Wales, Australia that includes representatives of Sialidae, Limoniidae, Chironomidae and Chaoboridae. The aquatic insect fossils from this deposit consist predominantly of larvae. These include a new species of phantom midge ( Chaoborus ,...

Mantispidae is a cosmopolitan family of neuropteran insects, with approximately 395 extant species (Ohl et al., 2004; Jepson, 2015; Engel et al., 2018; Li et al., 2023). The family includes some of the most distinctive of lacewings owing to their convergent traits with mantises (Mantodea), complete with elongate prothoraces, prominent and large com...

Apicobasal ridges are longitudinal ridges of enamel that are particularly common in several clades of aquatic-feeding predatory amniotes, including Plesiosauria, Ichthyosauria, Mosasauridae, Crocodylia, and Spinosauridae, as well as some early members of Cetacea. Although the repeated evolution of these dental ridges in unrelated clades suggests an...

Trichoptera (caddisflies) are insects with terrestrial adults and aquatic larvae. Although caddisflies spend most of their lives as larvae and pupate in the water, fossils of these stages are rarely found. However, ~100 pupae and uncased larvae were discovered at McGraths Flat, an Australian Miocene Lagerstätte. Many of the fossils are extremely we...

Examination of a fossil from a Miocene Konservat-Lagerstätte (c. 11–16 Mya) from Australia shows it to be an astioid jumping spider that is here described as Simaetha sp. indet. Fossilization in the iron oxide–hydroxide mineral goethite led to a high-fidelity preservation of not only the exterior, but of the pharyngeal plate and a neuropile in the...

Toothed whales (odontocetes) emit high-frequency underwater sounds (echolocate)—an extreme and unique innovation allowing them to sense their prey and environment. Their highly specialized mandible (lower jaw) allows high-frequency sounds to be transmitted back to the inner ear. Echolocation is evident in the earliest toothed whales, but little res...

Examination of a fossil from a Miocene Konservat-Lagerstätte (c. 11–16 Mya) from Australia shows it to be an astioid jumping spider that is here described as Simaetha sp. indet. Fossilization in the iron oxide–hydroxide mineral goethite led to a high-fidelity preservation of not only the exterior, but of the pharyngeal plate and a neuropile in the...

The aridification of the Australian continent led to the diversification of mygalomorph spiders in the Miocene, but a depauperate fossil record has made it difficult to investigate evolution across this epoch. Here, we describe the first fossil barychelid spider (Araneae: Barychelidae) in the world and the second fossil mygalomorph spider from Aust...

In the Southern Hemisphere, baleen whales generally undertake migrations between productive feeding grounds at high latitudes and breeding grounds at lower latitudes. Pygmy right whales (Caperea marginata) (PRW) are the smallest and most enigmatic baleen whale, that likely forgo long-distance migrations, and instead inhabit temperate and subantarct...

Not all fossil sites preserve microfossils that can be extracted using acid digestion, which may leave knowledge gaps regarding a site’s age or environmental characteristics. Here we report on a citizen science approach that was developed to identify microfossils in situ on the surface of sedimentary rocks. Samples were collected from McGraths Flat...

The holotype of Umoonasaurus demoscyllus (AM F.99374) is one of the most complete plesiosaur skeletons ever discovered in Australia. It preserves a gastric mass in the pectoral girdle region that has not yet been documented in detail. Here, we use high resolution micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to image the gut contents of this specimen. These...

Within delphinoid cetaceans, snout shape is significantly correlated to diet, with long-snouted raptorial-feeding predators preying on smaller and more agile prey than shorter-snouted species. Although there have been several studies into longirostry from a functional perspective there have been no quantitative analyses of spatial variation in skul...

Temnospondyli are a morphologically varied and ecologically diverse clade of tetrapods that survived for over 200 million years. The body mass of temnospondyls is a key variable in inferring their ecological, physiological and biomechanical attributes. However, estimating the body mass of these extinct creatures has proven difficult because the gro...

Australia hosts the richest diversity of extant cicadas in the world, but a scarcity of fossils means that little is known about their evolutionary history on the continent. Here we describe the first fossilized Cicadidae from Australia. Laopsaltria ferruginosa gen. et sp. nov., Burbungoides gulgongensis gen. et sp. nov. and Tithopsaltria titan gen...

Amniotes have been a major component of marine trophic chains from the beginning of the Triassic to present day, with hundreds of species. However, inferences of their (palaeo)ecology have mostly been qualitative, making it difficult to track how dietary niches have changed through time and across clades. Here, we tackle this issue by applying a no...

Reduced precipitation in the Miocene triggered the geographic contraction of rainforest ecosystems around the world. In Australia, this change was particularly pronounced; mesic rainforest ecosystems that once dominated the landscape transformed into the shrublands, grasslands, and deserts of today. A lack of well-preserved fossils has made it diff...

A single tetrapod tooth has been recovered from the Upper Jurassic Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed of New South Wales, Australia. It is the first evidence of a tetrapod to have been found at this locality in over 130 years of excavation. The tooth is likely from a temnospondyl amphibian. Herein, we document the discovery, discuss the potential explanatio...

Several groups of marsupial mammals have been cited as examples of functional convergence with placental mammals (e.g. Thylacinus cynocephalus (thylacine) and Canis lupis (gray wolf)), though detailed quantitative analyses have often revealed subtle differences between such groups. A less-well known purported case of convergence is that between the...

Cetaceans (whales and dolphins) have some of the largest and most complex brains in the animal kingdom. When and why this trait evolved remains controversial, with proposed drivers ranging from echolocation to foraging complexity and high-level sociality. This uncertainty partially reflects a lack of data on extinct baleen whales (mysticetes), whic...

Cetaceans (whales and dolphins) have some of the largest and most complex brains in the animal kingdom. When and why this trait evolved remains controversial, with proposed drivers ranging from echolocation to foraging complexity and high-level sociality. This uncertainty partially reflects a lack of data on extinct baleen whales (mysticetes), whic...

Since the Permian, Earth’s aquatic ecosystems have been ecologically dominated by numerous lineages of predatory amniotes. Many of these groups evolved elevated ridges of enamel that run down the apical–basal axis of their teeth, referred to here as apicobasal ridges. This trait is commonly used as a taxonomic tool to identify fossil species and hi...

Toothed cetacean (Odontoceti) lineages in the Miocene and Pliocene evolved rostra that are proportionally more elongate than any other aquatic mammal or reptile, living or extinct. Their similarities in cranial proportions to billfish may suggest a convergent feeding style, where the rostrum is swept through the water to hit and stun prey. Here we...

Streamlined flippers are often considered the defining feature of seals and sea lions, whose very name ‘pinniped’ comes from the Latin pinna and pedis, meaning ‘fin-footed’. Yet not all pinniped limbs are alike. Whereas otariids (fur seals and sea lions) possess stiff streamlined forelimb flippers, phocine seals (northern true seals) have retained...

Studies have suggested that the proportions of the rostrum and mandible (from short and broad to elongate and narrow) in toothed whales (odontocetes) may be associated with the size of the prey they consume, yet quantitative data on relationships between skull shape and diet have been lacking. Here, we quantified variation in skull shape in extant...

Many odontocete groups have developed enlarged facial crests, although these crests differ in topography, composition and function. The most elaborate crests occur in the South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica), in which they rise dorsally as delicate, pneumatized wings anterior of the facial bones. Their position wrapping around the melon...

The striking resemblance of long-snouted aquatic mammals and reptiles has long been considered an example of morphological convergence, yet the true cause of this similarity remains untested. We addressed this deficit through three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the full diversity of crocodilian and toothed whale (Odontoceti) skull shapes. Ou...

Unrelated clades of aquatic tetrapod have evolved a similar range of skull shapes, varying from longirostrine (elongate and narrow rostrum) to brevirostrine (short rostrum). However, it is unclear which aspects of organismal performance are associated with this convergence in the range of skull shapes. Furthermore, it is not known how fundamental a...

Biological invasions can induce rapid evolutionary change. As cane toads (Rhinella marina) have spread across tropical Australia over an 80-year period, their rate of invasion has increased from around 15 to 60 km per annum. Toads at the invasion front disperse much faster and further than conspecifics from range-core areas, and their offspring inh...

Nearly a century of paleontological excavation and analysis from the cave deposits of the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site in northeastern South Africa underlies much of our understanding of the evolutionary history of hominins, other primates and other mammal lineages in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene of Africa. As one of fe...

Skull structure is intimately associated with feeding ability in vertebrates, both in terms of specific performance measures and general ecological characteristics. This study quantitatively assessed variation in the shape of the cranium and mandible in varanoid lizards, and its relationship to structural performance (von Mises strain) and interspe...

The reliability of finite element analysis (FEA) in biomechanical investigations depends upon understanding the influence of model assumptions. In producing finite element models, surface mesh resolution is influenced by the resolution of input geometry, and influences the resolution of the ensuing solid mesh used for numerical analysis. Despite a...

Newly discovered in situ Primates and Mammals from the early Pleistocene Haasgat deposit, South Africa

It was recently shown that adult male koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) possess a novel vocal organ, the velar vocal folds, that underlie their mating bellows. Here we demonstrate through dissection of the infrahyoid region that this novel structure is also present in female and immature male koalas.

Suitability of habitat patches affects demographic processes and consequently influences the viability of populations. In order for managers to consider the potential of resources on a scale appropriate to their use, it is important to understand the processes that influence the ecology of threatened species. Differential growth rates of Litoria au...

Finite element analysis (FEA) is a computational technique of growing popularity in the field of comparative biomechanics, and is an easily accessible platform for form-function analyses of biological structures. However, its rapid evolution in recent years from a novel approach to common practice demands some scrutiny in regards to the validity of...

Crocodilians exhibit a spectrum of rostral shape from long snouted (longirostrine), through to short snouted (brevirostrine) morphologies. The proportional length of the mandibular symphysis correlates consistently with rostral shape, forming as much as 50% of the mandible's length in longirostrine forms, but 10% in brevirostrine crocodilians. Here...