Professor John Long

Many parts of our human anatomy originated back in the Early Palaeozoic (540-350 million years ago). This was when jaws, teeth, paired limbs, ossified brain-cases, intromittent genital organs, chambered hearts and paired lungs all appeared in early fishes. For the past 30 years I have been collecting from the Gogo sites in northern Western Australia, whose perfectly preserved 3-D fish fossils have yielded many significant discoveries, including mineralised soft tissues and the origins of complex sexual reproduction in vertebrates.

Current research projects include investigating the diversity and palaeoecology of the Devonian Gogo reef faunal assemablage (DP 221008258); and describing the highly derived fish Elpistostege (with Prof R. Cloutier, University of Quebec at Rimouski),and investigating early tetrapod trackways from Ireland and Australia (with Prof. Per Ahlberg, Uppsala University). A recent focus on the Mansfield area, Victoria, is yeilding some significant new Devonian and Carboniferous fish fossils currently under study. I completed my 4th field season in Antarctica over 2018/19 with the USAP program working with Prof Neil Shubin from the University of Chicago and we will be researching the fish fossils we collected.

I am the author or editor of some 30 adult and children's books, including technical books, general non-fiction and fiction. Hung Like an Argentine Duck (Harper Collins 2011, Dawn of the Deed, U.Chicago Press, PB 2014) explores the relevance of fossils to understanding sex in a broad evolutionary context. Life Frozen in Time- Prehistoric Life in Antarctica (Stilwell & Long, 2011) gives a complete overview of the evolution of life in Antarctica (CSIRO Publishing). My next book covers the fascinating 500 million year evolutionary journey of sharks. It comes out in the US in July, 2024, entitled The Secret History of Sharks -The Rise of the Ocean's Most Fearsome Predators (Penguin Randon House, New York, 480pp).