Species discovery and conservation priority in the Australian Monsoonal Tropics

Over the past decade, extensive field collecting combined with genome-scale analyses have revealed extreme geographic structuring of variation and a substantial number of new vertebrate species, especially among lizards. Many have small geographic ranges which co-occur in novel hotspots of diversity. Many of the hotspots of endemism are located in existing protected areas and all have high priority for conservation. The results further emphasise the biodiversity significance of several Indigenous Protected Areas across the region.

Craig Moritz is an evolutionary biologist at ANU with a passion for field work, genomics and discovery. His recent ARC Laureate funded much of the work described. His day job is Director of the Research School of Biology at ANU.