Rachael A King- PhD
- Senior Researcher at South Australian Museum
Rachael A King
- PhD
- Senior Researcher at South Australian Museum
About
118
Publications
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Introduction
Head of Biological Sciences and Senior Research Scientist at the South Australian Museum, specialising in crustacean systematics.
Research interests focus on the biology, systematics and molecular phylogenetics of amphipod and isopod crustaceans, the biodiversity and evolutionary relationships of groundwater associated fauna; the biodiversity of marine peracarid crustaceans
Current institution
Education
January 1998 - January 2001
Publications
Publications (118)
Barrow Island, off the coast of north-west Western Australia, supports a rich subterranean amphipod fauna amid major resource development. Previous biological surveys for the purpose of species documentation and environmental impact assessment have helped to uncover a once overlooked genus of amphipod from the family Eriopisidae. Here, we describe...
Numerous and diverse groundwater habitats suitable for sustaining aquatic invertebrate communities exist across Australia. These habitats include enclosed subterranean aquifer systems, fractured rock, alluvial aquifers, perched aquifers, artesian springs, and spring-fed seeps and marshes. Crustaceans are a dominant member of these groundwater-assoc...
Implementation of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding for biodiversity discovery and assessment offers a unique opportunity to gain new insights into subterranean communities around the world. However, for effective and meaningful identification of species from anonymous eDNA barcodes, a library of known reference sequences with associated corre...
Identification of species for environmental assessment and monitoring is essential for understanding anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity, but for subterranean fauna this task is frequently difficult and time consuming. The implementation of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding for biodiversity discovery and assessment offers considerable promis...
We provide an overview of the World Amphipoda Database (WAD), a global species database that is part of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Launched in 2013, the database contains entries for over 10,500 accepted species names. Edited currently by 31 amphipod taxonomists, following WoRMS priorities, the WAD has at least one editor per maj...
Recent studies have identified a significant number of endogenous cellulase genes in various arthropods, including isopods, allowing them to process hydrocarbons efficiently as a food source. While this research has provided insight into underlying gene‐level processes in cellulose decomposition by arthropods, little is known about the existence an...
The Great Artesian Basin of Australia represents one of the largest and deepest basins of freshwater on Earth. Thousands of springs fed by the Basin are scattered across Australia’s arid zone, often representing the sole sources of freshwater for thousands of kilometers. As “islands” in the desert, the springs support endemic fauna and flora that h...
Amphipod crustaceans comprise a significant and enigmatic component of Australian groundwater ecosystems, particularly in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Many amphipod species in the Pilbara, including species in the genus NedsiaBarnard & Williams, 1995, are considered short range endemics, poorly or contentiously defined by taxonomic trea...
The Pilbara and nearby regions in north-western Western Australia have an exceptionally high diversity of short-range endemic invertebrates inhabiting threatened groundwater-dependent habitats. Amphipod crustaceans, in particular, are dominant in these communities, but are poorly understood taxonomically, with many undescribed species. Recent molec...
Amphipod crustaceans comprise a significant and enigmatic component of Australian groundwater ecosystems, particularly in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Many amphipod species in the Pilbara, including species in the genus NedsiaBarnard & Williams, 1995, are considered short range endemics, poorly or contentiously defined by taxonomic trea...
Recent surveys of Australian arid-zone groundwater ecosystems have uncovered considerable species diversity and extreme endemism for the oniscidean isopod genus Haloniscus Chilton, 1920. Phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses have recognised several distinct species from the Great Artesian Basin springs in South Australia, inspiring a morph...
During the Miocene, central and western Australia shared a warm–wet environment that harboured a mesic rainforest fauna. Now, although the area is within the arid climate zone, it provides a habitat for highly diverse groundwater-associated invertebrates. Periods of global cooling and aridification during the late Miocene resulted in isolated deser...
Research Infrastructures (RIs) are facilities, resources and services used by the scientific community to conduct research and foster innovation. LifeWatch ERIC has developed various virtual research environments, which include many virtual laboratories (vLabs) offering high computational capacity and comprehensive collaborative platforms that supp...
Research Infrastructures (RIs) are facilities, resources and services used by the scientific community to conduct research and foster innovation. LifeWatch ERIC has developed various virtual research environments, which include many virtual laboratories (vLabs) offering high computational capacity and comprehensive collaborative platforms that supp...
Research Infrastructures (RIs) are facilities, resources and services used by the scientific community to conduct research and foster innovation. LifeWatch ERIC has developed various virtual research environments, which include many virtual laboratories (vLabs) offering high computational capacity and comprehensive collaborative platforms that supp...
Groundwater calcretes in arid central Western Australia contain a diverse invertebrate groundwater fauna (stygofauna). Surveys have uncovered a diverse oniscidean isopod subterranean fauna above the water table (troglofauna), including species of a recently described genus Paraplatyarthrus. The aim of this study was to investigate the biogeographic...
The oniscidean fauna of Australia is generally poorly known but recent sampling has revealed a new family, Paraplatyarthridae, found in both terrestrial and groundwater calcretes of central Western Australia. The family was initially described based on a new genus and species, Paraplatyarthrus subterraneus Javidkar and King, 2015. Here we describe...
Halosbaena Stock, 1976 are small crustaceans found in a number of distant, isolated subterranean locations in the Northern (Caribbean and Canary Islands) and Southern Hemispheres (Christmas Island and north-western Australia in Cape Range, Barrow Island and Pilbara regions). This distribution is surprising for an animal that produces few eggs, has...
Groundwater calcrete aquifers of central Western Australia have been shown to contain a high diversity of stygobiont (subterranean aquatic) invertebrates, with each species confined to an individual calcrete and the entire system resembling a 'subterranean archipelago' containing hundreds of isolated calcretes. Here, we utilised alternative samplin...
A significant diversity of terrestrial oniscidean isopods was recently discovered in the subterranean ‘calcrete islands’ of Western Australia, but the species and higher-level systematic status of much of the fauna are currently uncertain. Here we focus on one group of species that was initially assigned to the genus Trichorhina (Platyarthridae), b...
Three new species of Koonunga were discovered in surface and subterranean waters in southern Australia, and were defined using mtDNA analyses and morphology. The new species are: Koonunga hornei Leijs & King; K. tatiaraensis Leijs & King and K. allambiensis Leijs & King. Molecular clock analyses indicate that the divergence times of the species are...
Cryptic species are frequently being discovered in refugial habitats, such as desert springs and groundwater systems. Unfortunately, many of these taxa remain as unnamed entities years after their initial discovery. Recent advances in the use of molecular data and coalescent analyses allow DNA-based delimitation of species to move from single locus...
Recent molecular and morphological analyses have shown that chiltoniid amphipods, once thought to be a relictual group, are a diverse and speciose family of Australian freshwater amphipods. As part of a larger examination of the family, chiltoniids from Kangaroo Island in South Australia were collected and analysed using molecular (COI and 28S) and...
The putatively ancient subterranean crustacean family Parabathynellidae has been poorly studied, in part because of the problem of obtaining material from difficult to access subterranean habitats in which they live. Further, the systematics of the group has been complicated by their generally simplified morphology and isolated descriptions of new...
The Australian stygofauna comprises a unique and diverse assemblage of invertebrates, of which the amphipod crustaceans are a dominant but poorly described element. Recent exploration of the Western Australian stygofauna, in particular the Yilgarn region of central Western Australia, has shown evidence of great species diversity, with numerous indi...
Given the complex nature of freshwater catchment divides and emerging evidence of high levels of genetic diversity, there is great potential for cryptic species to exist among Australian freshwater amphipod groups. Among the chiltoniid amphipods, two congeneric species, Austrochiltonia australis (Sayce, 1901) and A. subtenuis (Sayce, 1902), have be...
Australia was historically considered a poor prospect for subterranean fauna but, in reality, the continent holds a great variety of subterranean habitats, with associated faunas, found both in karst and non-karst environments. This paper critically examines the diversity of subterranean fauna in several key regions for the mostly arid western half...
A summary account is given of the 33 holothurian species known from the South Atlantic Bight, from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, from the shore to a depth of 200 meters. Four of the six known orders of holothurians are represented in the study area. Each species is diagnosed and illustrated; citations of informative lit...
Amphipods within the family Chiltoniidae are an abundant yet taxonomically poorly known member of Australian freshwater habitats. With only four species known from Australia, the group is inadequately defined and marked by taxonomists as difficult to identify. Recent molecular analyses of chiltoniids from mound springs in South Australia detected s...
Amphipods within the family Chiltoniidae are an abundant yet taxonomically poorly known member of Australian freshwater habitats. With only four species known from Australia, the group is inadequately defined and marked by taxonomists as difficult to identify. Recent molecular analyses of chiltoniids from mound springs in South Australia detected s...
Three species of Ampelisca are described: two are new (Ampelisca dingaal sp. nov. and Ampelisca jiigurru sp. nov.), and the third presents a range extension of Ampelisca dimboola.
A review of the isopod genus Chiridotea Harger, 1878 is presented. Five species are recognized from the eastern United States and the northern Gulf of Mexico (Chiridotea almyra, C. arenicola, C. coeca, C. excavata and C. tuftsii). C. nigrescens is regarded as a junior synonym of C. coeca. Diagnoses and descriptions are given for each species, neoty...
Austrochiltonia is an abundant yet taxonomically poorly known freshwater amphipod genus. With two species recognised, they are inadequately defined yet widely identified throughout southern Australian freshwater systems. In an effort towards providing a clear diagnosis of Austrochiltonia, its type species, A. australis, is re-described from type ma...
FIGURE 2. Arabunnachiltonia murphyi n. sp., holotype male, 2.0 mm. A, whole body, lateral view; B, antenna 1; C, antenna 2; D, maxilliped; E, maxilla 2; F, maxilla 1; G, upper lip; H, lower lip; I, right mandible; J, left mandible. Scales: 1 (A), 0.1 mm; 2 (B – C), 0.1 mm; 3 (D – J), 0.05 mm.
FIGURE 7. Wangiannachiltonia guzikae n. sp., paratype female, 2.6 mm. A, gnathopod 1; B, gnathopod 2; C, right and left uropod 3; D, oostegite on pereonite 2; E, oostegite on pereonite 3; F, oostegite on pereonite 4; G, oostegite on pereonite 5. Scales: 1 (A – B), 0.1 mm; 2 (C), 0.05 mm; 3 (D – G), 0.1 mm.
FIGURE 1. A, map of eastern Australia showing the location of the underlying Great Artesian Basin (GAB) (The Lake Eyre region is highlighted). After Mudd, 2000; B, Enlarged map of the Lake Eyre spring groups. After Murphy et al., 2009.
FIGURE 3. Arabunnachiltonia murphyi n. sp., holotype male, 2.0 mm. A, gnathopod 1 (with enlargement); B, gnathopod 2 (with enlargement); C, pereopod 3; D, pereopod 4; E, pereopod 5; F, pereopod 6; G, pereopod 7; H, uropod 1; I, uropod 2; J, telson; K, uropod 3 (right and left). Scales: 1 (A – B), 0.1 mm; 2 (C – G), 0.1 mm; 3 (H – J), 0.5 mm.
FIGURE 4. Arabunnachiltonia murphyi n. sp., allotype female, 2.0 mm. A, gnathopod 1 (with enlargement); B, gnathopod 2 (with enlargement); C, antenna 1; D, antenna 2; E, distal end of pereopod 3; F, distal end of pereopod 4; G, oostegite on pereonite 2; H, oostegite on pereonite 3; I, oostegite on pereonite 4; J, oostegite on pereonite 5. Scales: 1...
FIGURE 6. Wangiannachiltonia guzikae n. sp., holotype male, 2.9 mm. A, gnathopod 1 (with enlargement); B, gnathopod 2 (with enlargement); C, pereopod 3; D, pereopod 4; E, pereopod 5; F, pereopod 6; G, pereopod 7; H, uropod 1; I, uropod 2; J, telson; K, right and left uropod 3. Scales: 1 (A – g), 0.1 mm; 2 (H – J) 0.5 mm; 3 (K), 0.5 mm.
FIGURE 5. Wangiannachiltonia guzikae n. sp., holotype male, 2.9 mm. A, whole body, lateral view; B, antenna 1; C, antenna 2; D, maxilliped; E, maxilla 2; F, maxilla 1; G, upper lip; H, lower lip; I, right mandible; J, left mandible. Scales: 1 (A), 0.1 mm; 2 (B – C), 0.1 mm; 3 (D – J), 0.05 mm.
FIGURE 8. Wangiannachiltonia guzikae n. sp., morphological variety: A, distal end of male gnathopod 2 (Elizabeth Springs); B, uropod 2 (Old Finnis Springs); C, female pereopod 7 (Old Finnis Springs); D, distal end of male gnathopod 2 (Coward Springs); E, uropod 2 (Coward Springs).
Humans have intentionally and accidentally transported plants, animals, and microbes around the world for a long time. What has changed considerably during the past several decades is the frequency and speed at which these translocations are occurring, and to some degree the rate of successful establishment of those species in their new range. Whil...
Two new species of leptanthurid isopods in the genus Accalathura are described: A. schotteae, from collections off Panama and A. kensleyi from Belize (material previously identified as A. crenulata in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.). The type species of the genus, Calathura crenulata Richardson, 1901, is...
