Sandy spaces – does a desert’s ecology make a difference to its animal inhabitants?

Join us at the Nicholson Museum for a public lecture by Professor Chris Dickman, the University of Sydney.

Most of the world's deserts are young, arising during the Miocene and becoming progressively more arid during the Pliocene-Pleistocene epochs. Similarity in arid conditions has long-shaped how we understand the mammals that adapted and moved into desert regions over time. But should it? In this illustrated talk, Professor Chris Dickman details how specific ecologies relate to differences in mammal behaviour and form. Following decades of research in Australia’s most extreme desert region, the Simpson Desert, Dickman argues that we need to pay attention to the dynamics of desert life to ensure thoughtful management and the continuity of our unique desert fauna.

Image: Checking mammal populations, Desert Ecology Research Group fieldwork, Simpson Desert. Photograph by Aaron Greenville, 2008.