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I started my Ph.D. in August 2005 and my work focuses on diving physiology of vertebrates and how oxygen consumption affects diving behaviour. My project involves monitoring the diving behaviour and measuring oxygen consumption of a fully aquatic snake, the Arafura File Snake (Acrochordus arafurae) during times of increased metabolic demand (feeding and digestion) and under varying temperature and aquatic oxygen levels.

 

My Honours project was in the field of reptile thermal biology and investigated the autonomic control of the crocodilian heart during thermoregulation. Many reptiles display a differential heart rate during heating and cooling, known as heart rate hysteresis; however the mechanism to regulate this in Crocodylus porosus remained unknown. It is now established that the autonomic nervous system is responsible for heart rate hysteresis in C. porosus and this was identified through autonomic blockades. Interestingly, the function of a heart rate hysteresis in terms of thermoregulation was not clear, as rates of heating and cooling were the same when a hysteresis was present and also abolished.

 

 

 

 

2007 – Current PhD Candidate

The University of Queensland

Supervisors: Prof. Craig E. Franklin and Dr. Robbie S. Wilson

 

2004 – 2005      B.Sc. (Hons), Zoology

First Class

Thesis: “Cardiac control mechanisms during thermoregulation in the estuarine crocodile, Crocodylus porosus”

The University of Queensland

Supervisor: Prof. Craig E. Franklin

 

2001 – 2003      B.Sc., Zoology

The University of Queensland

 

 

 

2005 – Current University of Queensland Tutor

2005                 Lab Assistant to Prof. Craig Franklin

 

2007                 ZOOL2030 Experimental and Physiological Zoology

 

2006                 BIOL1011 Genetics and Evolution

 

2005                 BIOL1011 Genetics and Evolution

2006                 Scope – Channel 10

 

 

 

2005                 UQ Mid-Year Scholarship

 

 

 

2006                 Why not to swim after lunch: conflict of digestion and diving,

ANZSCPB 22^nd Annual Meeting, University of Queensland, Australia.