Associate Professor Vera Weisbecker

My Bones & Biodiversity lab investigates diversity patterns and adaptations in Australian vertebrates, particularly Australia's iconic marsupials (such as wombats, kangaroos, and Tassie Devils) and birds. I am fascinated by the fact that marsupial mammals have been born at tiny sizes, and have to actively move to the pouch at birth, for at least the last 60 million years. I am interested in what this does to the evolution of marsupials - if anything - and how this might impact on their ability to quickly adapt to changing environments.

My other passion is the use of bony anatomy to predict the sensory capacities of birds, and how we can use this to get information on birds that are too rare or too time-consuming to observe experimentally or in the wild.

I work closely with the Palaeontologists (Prideaux/Long labs) and Phylogeneticists (Lee lab) here at Flinders. I also recently joined the Center of Excellence in Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) as a Chief Investigator, in collaboration with Prof. Corey Bradshaw’s Global Ecology Lab.