Karen H. Black

Karen H. Black, born about 1970, is a palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales. Black is the leading author on research describing new families, genera and species of fossil mammals.[1][2] She is interested in understanding faunal change and community structure in order to gain new understandings of past, current and future changes in biodiversity which are driven by climate.[3][4][5][6]

Karen Black
BornApproximately 1970
OccupationScientist
EmployerUniversity of New South Wales
Known forPaleontology

Karen Black won the Dorothy Hill medal, from the Australian Academy of Science in 2012, for research on the genus Nimbadon,[2] and is recognised by fellow researchers in the specific epithet of Hypsiprymnodon karenblackae.[7]

Career

Black's early career involved extracting, curating and analysing the fossils of the vertebrate faunas within limestone deposits in the region of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, located in northwestern Queensland. Black's research is focussed on improving our understanding of species interactions, development, faunal change, as well as behaviour, and community structure in ecosystems within Australia. The aim is to provide better understanding about our climate-driven changes in biodiversity.

Black was involved in the naming of a new species of extinct koala, which lived in canopies of northern Australian rainforest, approximately 20 million years ago. The koala was small, and a well-preserved skull of the new species was discovered. The koala species was named after the adventurer, Dick Smith. The species was named Litokoala dicksmithi, and Black reported “We chose the name to thank Mr Smith for his long-term financial support of Australian science, in particular, of fossil research at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in north western Queensland.”[8] The new species was described within the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.[9]

Her Dorothy Hill Medal was awarded for mammalogy research across the continent, describing the evolution of Australia's mammals, and relating changes across time with planetary-wide palaeoclimatic events, with the goal of providing new evidence-based understanding regarding projected future climate-driven changes within the biodiversity.[10]

Black has worked at Riversleigh, with fossil discovery, and published her findings on a new, extinct species of koala, as well as other species including marsupial moles, possums, wombat-like diprotodontids as well as trunked palorchestids.[11]

Black was described in the book "Rebels, Scholars, Explorers: Women in Vertebrate Paleontology" which describes her work in fossil-rich Riversleigh, with interests lying in biocorrelation and ontogeny.[12]

Publications

Select publications from Black's work on mammals and paleobiogeography can be found at her Google Scholar page,[13] and a selection are listed here:

  • The rise of Australian marsupials: a synopsis of biostratigraphic, phylogenetic, palaeoecologic and palaeobiogeographic understanding (2012) KH Black, M Archer, SJ Hand, H Godthelp Earth and life, 983-1078 [14]
  • The evolutionary history and diversity of Australian mammals (1999) M Archer, R Arena, M Bassarova, K Black, J Brammall, B Cooke, et al. Australian Mammalogy 21 (1), 1-45 [15]
  • Diversity and biostratigraphy of the Diprotodontoidea of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland (1999) K Black MEMOIRS-QUEENSLAND MUSEUM 41, 187-192[16]

Awards

Media

Black has written in the media on fossils, and bones of giant wombats, for SBS [18] as well as for the ABC.[19] Her work on fossil discovery has also been published in other media.[20][19]

References
  1. "Dr Karen Black". www.wakaleo.net. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  2. Rolfe, Dominic (29 November 2012). "Top 100: the thinkers". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  3. Derrick A. Arena; Kenny J. Travouillon; Robin M. D. Beck; Karen H. Black; Anna K. Gillespie; Troy J. Myers; Michael Archer; Suzanne J. Hand (19 May 2015). "Mammalian lineages and the biostratigraphy and biochronology of Cenozoic faunas from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia". Lethaia. 49 (1): 43–60. doi:10.1111/LET.12131. ISSN 0024-1164. Wikidata Q56926137.
  4. Karen H. Black; Gilbert J. Price; Michael Archer; Suzanne J. Hand (April 2014). "Bearing up well? Understanding the past, present and future of Australia's koalas". Gondwana Research. 25 (3): 1186–1201. doi:10.1016/J.GR.2013.12.008. ISSN 1342-937X. Wikidata Q56814734.
  5. Karen H. Black; Michael Archer; Suzanne J. Hand; Henk Godthelp (2012), The Rise of Australian Marsupials: A Synopsis of Biostratigraphic, Phylogenetic, Palaeoecologic and Palaeobiogeographic Understanding, pp. 983–1078, doi:10.1007/978-90-481-3428-1_35, Wikidata Q55966551
  6. Robin M D Beck; Julien Louys; Philippa Brewer; Michael Archer; Karen H Black; Richard H Tedford (25 June 2020). "A new family of diprotodontian marsupials from the latest Oligocene of Australia and the evolution of wombats, koalas, and their relatives (Vombatiformes)". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 9741. doi:10.1038/S41598-020-66425-8. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 7316786. PMID 32587406. Wikidata Q96686087.
  7. Bates, H.; Travouillon, K.J.; Cooke, B.; Beck, R.M.D.; Hand, S.J.; Archer, M. (4 March 2014). "Three new Miocene species of musky rat-kangaroos (Hypsiprymnodontidae, Macropodoidea): description, phylogenetics and paleoecology". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34 (2): 383–396. Bibcode:2014JVPal..34..383B. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.812098. S2CID 86139768.
  8. Queensl, The University of; Lucia, Australia Brisbane St; Gatton, QLD 4072 +61 7 3365 1111 Other Campuses: UQ; Maps, UQ Herston; Queensl, Directions © 2022 The University of. "20 million year old koala named after Dick Smith". UQ News. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  9. z3454192 (29 May 2013). "20 million year-old koala named after Dick Smith". UNSW Newsroom. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  10. "2012 awardees | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  11. "2012 awardees | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  12. Berta, Annalisa; Turner, Susan (27 October 2020). Rebels, Scholars, Explorers: Women in Vertebrate Paleontology. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-3971-6.
  13. "Karen Black". scholar.google.com.au. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  14. Black, Karen H.; Archer, Michael; Hand, Suzanne J.; Godthelp, Henk (2012), Talent, John A. (ed.), "The Rise of Australian Marsupials: A Synopsis of Biostratigraphic, Phylogenetic, Palaeoecologic and Palaeobiogeographic Understanding", Earth and Life: Global Biodiversity, Extinction Intervals and Biogeographic Perturbations Through Time, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 983–1078, doi:10.1007/978-90-481-3428-1_35, ISBN 978-90-481-3428-1, retrieved 14 April 2022
  15. Archer, M.; Arena, R.; Bassarova, M.; Black, K.; Brammall, J.; Cooke, B.; Creaser, P.; Crosby, K.; Gillespie, A.; Godthelp, H.; Gott, M. (1999). "The Evolutionary History and Diversity of Australian Mammals". Australian Mammalogy. 21 (1): 1–45. doi:10.1071/am99001. ISSN 1836-7402.
  16. "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  17. "2012 awardees: 2012 Dorothy Hill Award for female researchers in the earth sciences". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  18. "Bones of giant tree-wombat unearthed". SBS News. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  19. "Ancient trap captures marsupial secrets - ABC northandwest - Australian Broadcasting Corporation". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  20. "First discovery from 'New Riversleigh' -- a new extinct carnivorous marsupial". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
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