Successful wildlife conservation and management requires baseline information on species identity and distribution. Yet this is lacking for Australian bottlenose dolphins through taxonomic uncertainty. Since bottlenose dolphins are subject to a suite of human impacts, there is a need to address this uncertainty.

My PhD research aims to integrate morphological (osteological and geometric morphometrics methods) and genetic techniques (such as microsatellite genotyping and DNA sequencing) to clarify the taxonomic status, distribution and structure of the genus Tursiops in Australia. This approach is possible through our unprecedented access to a large number of specimens, collected by collaborators and museums