Staff

Glenn Shea - Research Associate

BVSc (Honours), University of Sydney, 1983
PhD, University of Sydney, 1992

When I was a child my grandfather gave me a Blue-tongued Lizard as a pet. This started my interest in herpetology. I was soon making fieldtrips near my home and around New South Wales looking under every rock and log, chasing lizards and snakes and keeping a range reptiles.

In my late teens I took a scientific approach to reptile research and did a degree in Veterinary Science. After this I took a job teaching anatomy and completed a PhD on Blue-tongued Lizards.

Research interests

• Species diversity, distribution and natural history (particularly the reproductive biology) of a range of Australian reptile groups, particularly skinks, pygopod lizards and typhlopid snakes.
• Systematics and reproductive biology of Blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua), followed by similar studies of the related skink genera Cyclodomorphus and, more recently, Egernia (the latter ongoing). (PhD research)

Publications:

• "Blauzungenskinke. Beitrage zu Tiliqua und Cyclodomorphus", (in German) in collaboration with A. Hauschild, K. Henle, R. Hitz and H. Werning (English translation in preparation).
• Six scientific papers on pygopods including the description of two new species and a subspecies of Delma ; resolution of distributional anomalies in Delma and natural history of the rare genera Pletholax and Paradelma.
• Ongoing collaborative research with Prof. A. Kluge (University of Michigan) concentrates on the phylogenetic relationships of pygopod lizards.
• Seven scientific papers on typhlophids including the description of one new species; redefinition and resurrection from synonymy of other species; the resolution of distributional anomalies introduced by historical studies and the first studies of male reproductive cycles in Australian typhlopids.
• Revision of the elapid snake genus Demansia (one published paper, one in preparation, the latter in collaboration with Dr J. Scanlon, South Australian Museum).
• Collaboration on various studies on skink systematics with R. Sadlier (Australian Museum) and P. Couper and J. Covacevich (Queensland Museum) including the description of two new genera.
• Interests in defining the distributions of Australian reptiles has resulted in a number of reported range extensions for various species, primarily rare species, and herpetofaunal surveys of various reserves in western New South Wales, particularly in collaboration with R. Sadlier, G. Swan and the Australian Herpetological Society.
• Species diversity and distribution of New Guinean skinks.

Current research includes the species diversity and distribution of the skink genus Sphenomorphus in New Guinea and the surrounding regions. This has involved examination of collections, totaling several thousands of specimens, in over 20 museums in Australia, Europe, USA and Papua New Guinea. This work continues and expands upon earlier work in the 1960s and 1970s by Dr Allen Greer (Australian Museum).

Publications

• Four papers
• Descriptions of over 15 new species
• A major monograph on the genus in this region (in preparation).
• History of Australian herpetological studies.
  This research interest arose from an interest in nomenclature and the historical literature of the Australian reptile fauna. This work has resolved a number of nomenclature issues involving early descriptions and collections. I am gradually gathering material for a full herpetological history of Australia.
• Catalogues of herpetological type specimens for the Australian Museum (published) as well as catalogues for collections in Berlin and Port Moresby (in preparation).
• Bibliographies (including bibliographies for the Blue-tongued Lizards, obscure herpetological literature and herpetological theses)
• Studies of the herpetological contributions of John Edward Gray, the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, the anatomist John Hunter, and William Anderson, zoologist on Cook’s third voyage.

Copyright © Australian Museum, 2002