University of Melbourne Herbarium

We're all set for UniMelb Open Day on Sunday 16th. The Herbarium and Tiegs Museum are opening their doors to visitors from 11 -3 pm, with displays in the Herbarium focusing on student opportunities for research and curation engagement.

Our teaching labs (BioSci 4, Rms 105-106) are full of interactive activities across all the Science majors to compliment the Science-focused information stalls in Wilson Hall. We're looking forward to all the visitors!

Join us this Wednesday @ 10 am at Melbourne Connect or online for an exciting dive into how AI is digitally transforming natural history collections. “Grapto”, a University of Melbourne and Museums Victoria collaboration, applies a new AI-based tool to mobilise data from 12,000 fossil specimens in the MV Graptolite collection. We will explore how AI can accelerate the transformation of the 'dark data' on specimens into publicly-accessible formats and consider the capacities and limitations of these innovative technologies.

Register to attend in person: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/ai-unlocks-museum-dark-data-graptolite-fossils-revealed-in-person-tickets-1992459658474 or online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-unlocks-museum-dark-data-graptolite-fossils-revealed-virtual-tickets-1992474934164?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true.

Sometimes you need to take a closer look!

While zooming in on our marine algal collection, our digitisation team uncovered not one, but two tiny surprises hiding within the specimens.

Meet Radiathamnion speleotis, a remarkable, fragile microscopic red alga that belongs to the family Ceramiaceae. Reaching a height of just 1–2 mm, it attaches itself directly to hosts like this macroalgae. It is entirely endemic to the southern coasts of Australia.

Hailing from the more tropical waters of Heron Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef, this little sea urchin was found nestled amongst another specimen of a red calcified alga, Actinotrichia fragilis, commonly known as banded Galaxaura, spikeweed, or thicket algae.

A gentle reminder that herbarium specimens often hold more secrets than meet the eye - and careful imaging can reveal an entirely hidden world.

Congratulations to MSc student Luke Vaughan who presented his final talk this week, along with a cohort of School of BioSciences Masters students. Luke used genomic methods and sequence data to estimate relationships within Peziza s.l. (Pezizaceae) with species characterised using morphological data. The first publication describing new Peziza species - based on his MSc research - is already out! Well done Luke!

To mark National Reconciliation Week, students, graduate researchers and staff of the School of BioSciences are invited to join the Hidden Waters of The Birrarung event on Monday 1st of June @ 10 am-12 pm.

Herbarium staff are excited to join in the guided tour by University of Melbourne Plant Science student and cultural storyteller Jakobi Ili-Jakobi (Djab Wurrung and Dhauwurd Wurrung), who is also one of our fantastic Herbarium volunteers, along with Petrichor Collaborative, looking at the Birrarung river's presence on campus and drawing your attention to old river red gums, eels moving through stormwater systems and native species persisting in urban landscapes. The guided walk is followed by an art activity, led by creative practitioner Maria Bulmaga.

Meet at the Melbourne University Welcome Ground, east of the Engineering Workshops (Building 169) and south of the Eastern Resource Centre Library (Building 171).

This week School of Biosciences welcomed Moira O'Bryan, Dean of the Faculty of Science, and colleagues to the Herbarium, to discuss the research and teaching work that is underway in the collection. It was wonderful opportunity to highlight the work of our student volunteers. Angharad, our Digitisation Officer, gave a great demonstration of our digitisation pipeline, highlighting just what it takes to create high-quality digital specimen records.

Congratulations to our School of BioSciences Honours students who completed their final talks today! There were some fascinating talks including by Plant Systematics Lab students Lexie Sharples, Rory Day, and Georg Armstrong! It is amazing how much research they each fitted into the last year. Well done and good luck with thesis writing!

MELU recently received the generous gift of a set of algal specimens collected by Dr Louise Phillips, gifted to our collection by Dr David Phillips. The specimens were collected by Louise during her PhD study on the Rhodomelaceae, supervised by Dr Gerry Kraft in the early 2000s. The collection includes specimens from her dissertation, as well as others from New Zealand collected during research with Prof. Wendy Nelson, and from the Falkland Islands for research with Emeritus Prof Margaret Clayton of Monash University. Many thanks to David for this kind gift, which will be a wonderful addition to our algal collection.