Amanda Lane Heydon-Laurence Building, A08 University of Sydney NSW 2006 Room: 447 Ph: (02) 9351 8679 Fax: (02) 9351 5609 e-mail: alane@bio.usyd.edu.au

General Interests Current Research Past Research Education Presentations Publications Grants and Awards

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General Research Interests

I have an abiding interest in nature and I find that studying evolution satisfies my need for contemplation while allowing me to explore the intricacies of the natural environment. Primarily, I am interested in those processes surrounding speciation – what conditions need to be met for speciation to take place and what factors promote diversity both within and between species? With such broad research interests, I have found myself working on a diversity of projects within evolutionary biology.

Current Research

My PhD focuses on two species of sea snakes, Laticauda saintgironsi and Laticauda laticaudata, which can be found in abundance on the small, uninhabited islands of the Noumea lagoon, New Caledonia. These ‘sea kraits’ are amphibious, spending approximately equal amounts of time in the sea and on land. They hunt their prey of moray and conger eels on the coral reefs and return to land to digest, slough their skins, mate and lay eggs. These sea kraits are highly philopatric, meaning that they return to the same island repeatedly, even when translocated several kilometres away. This suggests that they may return to the island on which they hatched in order to mate and lay eggs. If this is the case, then populations on different islands will exhibit genetic divergence due to a lack of gene flow between island-populations.

Such a population structure can provide an excellent model for studies of evolutionary biology and has important implications for conservation management.  In isolation from each other, populations are subject to the forces of local adaptation and genetic drift. Genetic drift and local adaptation are of great importance in the diversification of natural populations. Habitat fragmentation can increase the risk of localised extinctions from stochastic processes and from reduced organismal viability due to inbreeding. Small effective population sizes may be less able to respond to selective forces and their adaptive potential may therefore be reduced. On the other hand, fragmentation of populations may increase genetic diversity across an entire species, as populations adapt to local conditions or are effected by genetic drift, including founder effects. 

The primary aim of my PhD is to investigate diversification in the Laticauda genus in New Caledonia by the use of mitochondrial and nuclear genetic data. Genetic markers present a popular means of delineating population structure as they can reveal patterns of dispersal that are not detected by direct observation. Genetic data will be complemented with ecological and behavioural studies, focused on reproduction and dispersal, in order to provide an inclusive picture of the evolutionary processes at work in the Laticauda species complex.

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Past Research

I completed my honours degree at the University of Queensland in 2001, under the combined supervision and mentorship of Professors Ian Owens, Craig Moritz and Hugh Possingham.

My thesis was concerned with patterns of morphology, colouration and mate choice in the Wet Tropics rainbow skink, Carlia rubrigularis. Previous studies had suggested that this species was undergoing selection across the rainforest-open forest ecotone with this being reflected in differences in the morphology of animals from the two habitat types. Extensive sampling across paired sites in the Wet Tropics region showed that patterns of morphology in this species were largely due to site specific effects with no overall difference in the morphology of animals caught in the open eucalypt forest compared to those caught in the rainforest. Colouration was also not found to be significantly different between habitat types. Mate choice experiments showed an interesting pattern, whereby males from one site or habitat type preferred to court females from differing sites or habitats. This tendency towards outbreeding would seemingly preclude any speciation event between populations that are still in contact across an ecotonal boundary.


My genetics skills were honed while working as a Research Assistant for Professor Scott O’Neill at the University of Queensland. The lab in which I worked was primarily concerned with the genetic control of insect borne diseases, such as malaria, specifically using the bacterial endosymbiont, Wolbachia. A related area of research in which I was involved was research into a new strain of ‘spotted fever’ from Far North Queensland.




Field work is something in which I take immense enjoyment, and I have been lucky enough to contribute to several field studies outside of my own research. In 2004 I assisted Prof. Rick Shine in his ongoing investigation into the sexual strategies of garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) in Manitoba, Canada. This work primarily focused on mate location and mate choice under variable conditions.







In 2003 I spent time working with Dr Devi Stuart-Fox in South Africa, aiding her research into communication systems in dwarf chameleons.

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1995-1999	BA (majors; psychology, religion) University of Queensland
	BSc (majors; ecology, zoology) University of Queensland
2000-2001	BSc Honours (First class) University of Queensland
2004-present	PhD candidate University of Sydney

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