Professor Matthew Phillips
Faculty of Science,
School of Biology & Environmental Science
Biography
BackgroundMuch of my earlier research focused on developing phylogenetic methods to resolve evolutionary relationships, usually among mammals or birds. Although I continue this work, my research now primarily involves using molecular and morphological phylogeny to infer macroevolutionary patterns and processes. I am particularly interested in integrating data from DNA sequences, ecology and fossils to better understand the origins and maintenance of mammalian biodiversity. Other long-term interests include inferring how dinosaurs and their extinction influenced the evolution of birds and mammals and understanding the impact long term isolation of Australia's marsupials impacted their evolvability.
Research Interests
- Phylogenetic methods
- Understanding the origins and maintenance of biodiversity among Australian mammals
- Extinction and survival around the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (aka K/T boundary)
- Modelling ecological niche evolution
Past positions
Australian National University – ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Research School of Biology
Massey University, New Zealand – Postdoctoral Fellow at the Allan Wilson Center for Molecular Ecology & Evolution and Lecturer in the Ecology Department
University of Oxford, UK – Postdoctoral Researcher at the Ancient Biomolecules Centre
Personal details
Positions
- Professor
Faculty of Science,
School of Biology & Environmental Science
Keywords
Evolutionary Biology, Marsupials, Monotremes, Phylogenetics
Research field
Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (Massey University)
Professional memberships and associations
Proffesional memberships:
Keywords: Marsupials, Monotremes, Phylogenetics, Evolutionary biology
- Society of Systematic Biologists
- The Australian Mammal Society
Keywords: Marsupials, Monotremes, Phylogenetics, Evolutionary biology
Teaching
Evolutionary Biology, Zoology
Publications
- Phillips, M., Bennett, T. & Lee, M. (2010). Reply to Camens: How recently did modern monotremes diversify? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(4). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50525
- Phillips, M., Gibb, G., Crimp, E. & Penny, D. (2010). Tinamous and moa flock together: Mitochondrial genome sequence analysis reveals independent losses of flight among ratites. Systematic Biology, 59(1), 90–107. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50541
- Phillips, M., (2009). Branch-length estimation bias misleads molecular dating for a vertebrate mitochondrial phylogeny. Gene, 441(1 - 2), 132–140. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50539
- Phillips, M., Bennett, T. & Lee, M. (2009). Molecules, morphology, and ecology indicate a recent, amphibious ancestry for echidnas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(40), 17089–17094. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50537
- Phillips, M. & Pratt, R. (2008). Family-level relationships among the Australasian marsupial 'herbivores' (Diprotodontia: Koala, wombats, kangaroos and possums). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 46(2), 594–605. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50535
- Penny, D. & Phillips, M. (2007). Evolutionary biology: Mass survivals. Nature: international weekly journal of science, 446(7135), 501–502. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50520
- Phillips, M., McLenachan, P., Down, C., Gibb, G. & Penny, D. (2006). Combined mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences resolve the interrelations of the major Australasian marsupial radiations. Systematic Biology, 55(1), 122–137. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50530
- Drummond, A., Ho, S., Phillips, M. & Rambaut, A. (2006). Relaxed phylogenetics and dating with confidence. PLoS Biology, 4(5), 0699–0710. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50531
- Barnett, R., Barnes, I., Phillips, M., Martin, L., Harington, C., Leonard, J. & Cooper, A. (2005). Evolution of the extinct Sabretooths and the American cheetah-like cat. Current Biology, 15(15), 589–590. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50526
- Ho, S., Phillips, M., Cooper, A. & Drummond, A. (2005). Time dependency of molecular rate estimates and systematic overestimation of recent divergence times. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 22(7), 1561–1568. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50528
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Matthew, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Supervision
Current supervisions
- The comparative utility of three-dimensional geometric versus traditional morphometrics in species-level taxonomy of small mammals: a case study revising the genus Pseudantechinus
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Andrew Baker