Scott Hocknull
Encyclopedia
Scott Hocknull is a vertebrate palaeontologist and Senior Curator in Geology
at the Queensland Museum
in Brisbane
. He was the 2002 recipient of the Young Australian of the Year Award.
He is the youngest Australia
n to date to hold a museum curatorship and has described and named 10 new species and four new genera.
From Queensland Museum's web site is the following
"Scott's career path is a story of childhood dreams come true-his passion for studying dinosaurs and palaeontology as a boy was realised when he was appointed as a curator of Geosciences at the Queensland Museum at the age of just 22 years. This made him the youngest curator of any Australian museum, and his achievements earned him the 2002 Young Australian of the Year Award.
Scott developed a passion for dinosaurs when he was a child. He officially began his professional career in palaeontology in 1994, at the age of 16, when he published his first scientific paper on a new species of fossil freshwater bivalve. Through his early work he discovered and scientifically described and published numerous new genera and species of extinct prehistoric animal. He became at that time Australia's youngest scientific author! Since then, he has worked on a range of extinct animals from freshwater mollusks and marine worms to extinct giant frogs and gigantic dinosaurs.
Scott volunteered at the Queensland Museum for 10 years during his school holidays and whilst attending university, focusing for a full 12 months in 1995 on his own research before beginning university studies at the University of Queensland (UQ). During these voluntary years Scott collected numerous new fossil sites for the museum, some of which are hailed as the most significant of their type in Australian paleontological history.
He graduated from UQ in 2000 with first class honours in the areas of Geology and Zoology.
The 2002 Young Australian of the Year Award came in recognition of Scott's outstanding work. A particularly fruitful year for Scott, in 2002 he was also awarded the Young Australian of the Year for Queensland, Queensland Career Achiever, Queensland Science and Technology Achiever, and National Career Achiever!
These awards have given him the opportunity to travel across Australia where he inspires young people, motivates young managers and promotes his science as a youth ambassador for events such as National Youth Week, National Science Week, Australia Day and Palaeoweek.
In 2009 Scott completed his Doctorate focusing on the evolution of Australia and Papua New Guinea's fauna, flora and climate over the last 15 million years.
His current research encompasses the study of climatic, environmental and faunal change in Australia over the past 110 million years with the aim of aiding in the conservation management of Australia's living species. “The past is the key to understanding our present, and predicting our future” is a phrase Scott works by as part of his lifetime goals in Australian palaeontology.
Amongst numerous field-based research programs associated with universities and community groups across the country, Scott is the lead researcher on Australian dinosaur discoveries near the townships of Winton and Eromanga. In 2009 he and his colleagues from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum discovered and named three new species of dinosaur, including Australia’s most complete theropod (carnivorous dinosaur) skeleton, scientifically named Australovenator wintonensis. Along with these discoveries, Scott works closely with the Outback Gondwana Foundation, based in Eromanga, surrounding the discovery of 'Cooper' Australia's Largest dinosaur.
Scott knows there is a lifetimes worth of work for future palaeontologists studying in Australia and his goal is to make palaeontology a more accessible and better funded science. As Scott has proven, you can start practicing science at a very young age."
Cramb, J; Hocknull, SA; Webb, GE (2009). High diversity Pleistocene rainforest Dasyurid assemblages with implications for the radiation of the dasyuridae AUSTRAL ECOLOGY. 34: 6, pp 663–669.
Hocknull, SA; White, MA; Tischler, TR, Cook AG, Calleja ND, Sloan T, Elliott DA (2009). New Mid-Cretaceous
(Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia. PLOS ONE. 4: 7 e6190.
Hocknull, SA.; Cook, AG (2008). Hypsilophodontid (Dinosauria : Ornithischia) from latest Albian, Winton formation, central Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 52: Part 2: pp212.
Hocknull, SA (2005) Ecological succession during the late Cainozoic of central eastern Queensland: Extinction of a diverse rainforest community. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 51: Part 1, pp39–122
Price, GJ.; and Hocknull, SA (2005). A small adult Palorchestes (Marsupialia, Palorchestidae) from the Pleistocene of the Darling Downs, southeast Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 51: 1, pp 202.
Hocknull, SA (2003) Etnabatrachus maximus gen. et sp. nov., a Plio-Pleistocene frog from Mount Etna, central eastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 49: 1, 327-330
Hocknull, SA (2002). Comparative maxillary and dentary morphology of the Australian dragons (Agamidae: Squamata): A framework for fossil identification. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 48: 1, pp 125–145
Hocknull, SA (2000). Remains of an Eocene skink from Queensland. ALCHERINGA. 24: 1-2, pp 63–64
Hocknull, SA (2000). Mesozoic freshwater and estuarine bivalves from Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland
Museum. 45: 2, pp 405–426
Hocknull, SA (1997). Cretaceous freshwater bivalves from Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 42: 1, pp 223–226
Hocknull, SA (1994). A new freshwater bivalve from the Triassic of southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the
Queensland Museum. 37: 1, pp 146 Published
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
at the Queensland Museum
Queensland Museum
The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland. The museum currently operates four separate campuses; at South Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Townsville.The museum is funded by the State Government of Queensland.-History:...
in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
. He was the 2002 recipient of the Young Australian of the Year Award.
He is the youngest Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n to date to hold a museum curatorship and has described and named 10 new species and four new genera.
From Queensland Museum's web site is the following
"Scott's career path is a story of childhood dreams come true-his passion for studying dinosaurs and palaeontology as a boy was realised when he was appointed as a curator of Geosciences at the Queensland Museum at the age of just 22 years. This made him the youngest curator of any Australian museum, and his achievements earned him the 2002 Young Australian of the Year Award.
Scott developed a passion for dinosaurs when he was a child. He officially began his professional career in palaeontology in 1994, at the age of 16, when he published his first scientific paper on a new species of fossil freshwater bivalve. Through his early work he discovered and scientifically described and published numerous new genera and species of extinct prehistoric animal. He became at that time Australia's youngest scientific author! Since then, he has worked on a range of extinct animals from freshwater mollusks and marine worms to extinct giant frogs and gigantic dinosaurs.
Scott volunteered at the Queensland Museum for 10 years during his school holidays and whilst attending university, focusing for a full 12 months in 1995 on his own research before beginning university studies at the University of Queensland (UQ). During these voluntary years Scott collected numerous new fossil sites for the museum, some of which are hailed as the most significant of their type in Australian paleontological history.
He graduated from UQ in 2000 with first class honours in the areas of Geology and Zoology.
The 2002 Young Australian of the Year Award came in recognition of Scott's outstanding work. A particularly fruitful year for Scott, in 2002 he was also awarded the Young Australian of the Year for Queensland, Queensland Career Achiever, Queensland Science and Technology Achiever, and National Career Achiever!
These awards have given him the opportunity to travel across Australia where he inspires young people, motivates young managers and promotes his science as a youth ambassador for events such as National Youth Week, National Science Week, Australia Day and Palaeoweek.
In 2009 Scott completed his Doctorate focusing on the evolution of Australia and Papua New Guinea's fauna, flora and climate over the last 15 million years.
His current research encompasses the study of climatic, environmental and faunal change in Australia over the past 110 million years with the aim of aiding in the conservation management of Australia's living species. “The past is the key to understanding our present, and predicting our future” is a phrase Scott works by as part of his lifetime goals in Australian palaeontology.
Amongst numerous field-based research programs associated with universities and community groups across the country, Scott is the lead researcher on Australian dinosaur discoveries near the townships of Winton and Eromanga. In 2009 he and his colleagues from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum discovered and named three new species of dinosaur, including Australia’s most complete theropod (carnivorous dinosaur) skeleton, scientifically named Australovenator wintonensis. Along with these discoveries, Scott works closely with the Outback Gondwana Foundation, based in Eromanga, surrounding the discovery of 'Cooper' Australia's Largest dinosaur.
Scott knows there is a lifetimes worth of work for future palaeontologists studying in Australia and his goal is to make palaeontology a more accessible and better funded science. As Scott has proven, you can start practicing science at a very young age."
Awards
- 2009 Riversleigh Society Medal for Excellence in promoting understanding of Australian Prehistory
- 2009 Queensland's 50 Best and Brightest, Queensland Courier Mail
- 2007 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Finalist
- 2007 Finalist, Eve Pownell Award for Information Books, Amazing Facts about Australian Dinosaurs.
- 2005 Neville Stevens Medal Geological Society of Australia's Neville Stevens Medal for Science Communication.
- 2003 Centenary Medalist
- 2003 Finalist Eureka Awards British Council for Inspiring Science
- 2003 Eureka Science AwardEureka PrizesThe Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are annual Australian science prizes awarded in the fields of scientific research & innovation, science leadership, science communication & journalism and school science. There is also a People's Choice Award which is decided by popular public vote.The finalists...
Finalist - 2002 Young Australian of the Year
- 2002 Young Queenslander of the Year
- 2002 National Career Achiever
- 2002 Queensland Career Achiever
- 2002 Queensland Science & Technology Achiever
- 1997 Best student presentation Award, 6th Conference of Australian Vertebrate Evolution Palaeontology and Systematics, 1997 (as a High School student presenting with Under and Post Graduate students).
Published Papers
Hocknull SA, Piper PJ, van den Bergh GD, Due RA, Morwood MJ, Due RA, Morwood MJ, Kurniawan I,. (2009). Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of theLargest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae). PLoS ONE; 4(9)Cramb, J; Hocknull, SA; Webb, GE (2009). High diversity Pleistocene rainforest Dasyurid assemblages with implications for the radiation of the dasyuridae AUSTRAL ECOLOGY. 34: 6, pp 663–669.
Hocknull, SA; White, MA; Tischler, TR, Cook AG, Calleja ND, Sloan T, Elliott DA (2009). New Mid-Cretaceous
(Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia. PLOS ONE. 4: 7 e6190.
Hocknull, SA.; Cook, AG (2008). Hypsilophodontid (Dinosauria : Ornithischia) from latest Albian, Winton formation, central Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 52: Part 2: pp212.
Hocknull, SA (2005) Ecological succession during the late Cainozoic of central eastern Queensland: Extinction of a diverse rainforest community. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 51: Part 1, pp39–122
Price, GJ.; and Hocknull, SA (2005). A small adult Palorchestes (Marsupialia, Palorchestidae) from the Pleistocene of the Darling Downs, southeast Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 51: 1, pp 202.
Hocknull, SA (2003) Etnabatrachus maximus gen. et sp. nov., a Plio-Pleistocene frog from Mount Etna, central eastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 49: 1, 327-330
Hocknull, SA (2002). Comparative maxillary and dentary morphology of the Australian dragons (Agamidae: Squamata): A framework for fossil identification. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 48: 1, pp 125–145
Hocknull, SA (2000). Remains of an Eocene skink from Queensland. ALCHERINGA. 24: 1-2, pp 63–64
Hocknull, SA (2000). Mesozoic freshwater and estuarine bivalves from Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland
Museum. 45: 2, pp 405–426
Hocknull, SA (1997). Cretaceous freshwater bivalves from Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 42: 1, pp 223–226
Hocknull, SA (1994). A new freshwater bivalve from the Triassic of southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the
Queensland Museum. 37: 1, pp 146 Published