Out of China? Australia's earliest endemic jawed vertebrate faunas.

该项目将从澳大利亚泥盆纪沉积物中寻找新的化石发现，以解决早期有颌脊椎动物的起源、多样化和地理分布的问题。特别是，有可能测试或完善最近的进化假说的基础上发现的化石从志留纪-泥盆纪的中国南部，作为一个可能的起源点的几个关键的脊椎动物群体。可能的发现包括测试硬骨鱼类和盾皮类之间的真皮骨同源性的鱼类，可能揭示颌骨起源细节的无颌鱼类，以及通过观察到的早期泥盆纪化石鱼类的大小来校准古大气模型。

This project will seek new fossil discoveries from Australian Devonian sediments to address questions of the origins, diversification and biogeographical dispersal of early jawed vertebrates. In particular, there is the potential to test or refine recent evolutionary hypotheses based on fossil finds from the Siluro-Devonian of southern China which served as a likely point of origin for several key vertebrate groups. Likely finds include fishes that test dermal bone-homologies between osteichthyans and placoderms, jawless fishes that may unveil details of the origin of jaws, and calibration of paleoatmospheric models via the observed size of Early Devonian fossil fishes.