• 2005-: PhD (Biological Sciences), Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales
  Research project: 'Form, function and phylogeny of enigmatic Australian mammals'
• 2002-2003: MSc DIC (Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity), Imperial College and the Natural History Museum, London
  Research project: 'The issue of poor quality data in supertrees: the interordinal phylogeny of the placental mammals as a case study' - supervised by Dr. Andy Purvis (Imperial College)
• 1999-2002: MA (Natural Sciences), Pembroke College, University of Cambridge
  Research project: 'A cladistic analysis of the strepsirhines using osteological characters, with specific reference to the phylogenetic position of the cheirogaleids and the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)' - supervised by Dr. Adrian Friday

• CREATE PhD scholarship: 2007
• Best student presentation, 11^th Conference on Australasian Vertebrate Evolution, Palaeontology and Systematics (CAVEPS): 2007
• Best presentation, UNSW School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences Postgraduate Research Forum: 2006.
• Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Scholarship: 2005-2006.
• Best student presentation, 10th Conference on Australasian Vertebrate Evolution, Palaeontology and Systematics (CAVEPS): 2005
• Honourable mention, UNSW School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences Postgraduate Research Forum: 2005.
• Pembroke College Foundation Scholarship: 2001-2002.
• Pembroke College Scholarship: 2000-2001.
• Pembroke College Prize: 1999-2000, 2000-2001
• Gold Medal, British Biology Olympiad: 1999

• GEOS2071 - Life Through Time (lecturer)
• BABS1201 - Molecules, Cells and Genes (demonstrator)

1. detailed study of a number of these enigmatic mammals from a taxonomic/systematic and/or functional perspective; and
2. incorporation of these findings into a large-scale study of the phylogeny of living and extinct marsupials.

1. Study of Australia's oldest known marsupials, from the early Eocene (~55 MYA) Tingamarra fossil deposit in southeastern Queensland.
2. Description of a bizarre new family of marsupials from the Early Pliocene (4 MYA) of northeastern Queensland.
3. Functional morphology and evolution of the tarsus of fossil and extant marsupial moles (Notoryctemorphia).
4. Redescription of the enigmatic marsupial Yalkaparidon (Yalkaparidontia).
5. A dated molecular phylogeny of marsupials: comparison with the fossil record.
6. A higher-level phylogeny of fossil and extant marsupials using morphological data (in collaboration with Dr. Rob Voss, American Museum of Natural History).

Address: School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW, Sydney 2052 Australia
Tel:  +61 2 9385 2125
Fax: +61 2 9385 1558
e-mail: robin.beck@student.unsw.edu.au

Bininda-Emonds, O.R.P., R.M.D. Beck, M. Cardillo, J.L. Gittleman, R. Grenyer, K.E. Jones, G.M. Mace, S.A. Price, and A. Purvis. 2006. The Tree of Life: deciphering the puzzle of relationships between mammals using supertrees. Pp. xxxii-xxxiii in The Encyclopedia of Mammals (Macdonald, D. ed.); Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Archer, M., Arena, D.A., Bassarova, M., Beck, R.M.D., Black, K., Boles, W.E., Brewer, P., Cooke, B.N., Crosby, K., Gillespie, A., Godthelp, H., Hand, S.J., Kear, B., Louys, J., Morrell, A., Muirhead, J., Roberts, K.K., Scanlon, J.D., Travouillon, K.J., Wroe, S., 2006. Current status of species-level representation in faunas from selected fossil localities in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland. Alcheringa special issue 1:1-17.

 

Beck R.M.D., Archer M., Godthelp H., Mackness B., Hand S.J., Muirhead J. Accepted. A bizarre new family of Marsupialia ( incertae sedis) from the early Pliocene of northeastern Australia: implications for the phylogeny of bunodont marsupials.  Journal of Paleontology.

 

Beck R.M.D., Bininda-Emonds O.R.P., Cardillo M., Liu F.-G. R., Purvis A. A higher-level MRP supertree of placental mammals. 2006. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 6: 93.

 

Gurovich Y., Beck R.M.D. In review. The phylogenetic affinities of the enigmatic mammalian clade Gondwanatheria. Journal of Mammalian Evolution.

 

Beck R.M.D., Godthelp H., Weisbecker V., Archer M., Hand S. J. Submitted. Australia's oldest marsupial and its implications for Gondwanan marsupial biogeography. PLoS ONE.

 

Beck. R.M.D. In press. A dated phylogeny of marsupials using a molecular supermatrix and multiple fossil constraints: comparison with the fossil record. Journal of Mammalogy.

 

Bininda-Emonds O.R.P., Beck R.M.D., Purvis A. Getting to the roots of matrix representation. Systematic Biology. 54:668-72.

 

Bininda-Emonds O.R.P., Cardillo M., Jones K.E., MacPhee R.D.E., Beck R.M.D., Grenyer R., Price S.A., Vos R.A., Gittleman J.L., Purvis A. 2007. The delayed rise of present-day mammals. Nature. 446: 507-512.

 

Higdon, J.W., O.R.P. Bininda-Emonds, O.R.P.,Ferguson, S.H., Beck, R.M.D. 2007. Phylogeny and divergence of the pinnipeds (Carnivora: Mammalia) assessed using a multigene supertree with fossil calibrations. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 7: 216

 

Worthy, T.H., Tennyson, A.D., Archer, M., Musser, A.M., Hand, S.J., Jones, C., Douglas, B.J., McNamara, J.A., Beck, R.M.D., 2006. Miocene Mammal reveals a Mesozoic ghost lineage on insular New Zealand, southwest Pacific. PNAS 103: 19219-19223.

Hand, S.J., T.H. Worthy, M. Archer, H. Godthelp, R.M.D Beck, A.D Tennyson, P. Scofield and B. Sigé. 2007. New opportunities for testing competing biogeographic hypotheses about the origins of the Australasian bat fauna. 11th Conference on Australasian Evolution, Palaeontology and Systematics (CAVEPS).

Reviewer for Biology Letters, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and Systematic Biology.