Richard Shine

Richard Shine

Professor Richard Shine AM FAA (born 7 June 1950) is an Australian evolutionary biologist and ecologist; he has conducted extensive research on reptiles and amphibians, and proposed a novel mechanism for evolutionary change. He is currently a Professor of Biology at the University of Sydney.

Rick Shine was born in Brisbane in 1950. He attended schools in Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra, and completed his university studies at the Australian National University with an Honours degree in zoology in 1971 (supervised by Dr Richard E. Barwick). His Ph D was obtained from the University of New England in Armidale, under the supervision of Professor Harold F. Heatwole, and dealt with the field ecology of Australian venomous snakes. It was the first detailed ecological research on these animals. He also began working on broader questions in evolutionary biology, collaboratively with another student, James J. Bull (currently Johann Friedrich Miescher Regents Professor in Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin).

Shine conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (1976 to 1978) in the research groups of Professor Eric Charnov and Professor John M. Legler. He returned to Australia to take up a postdoctoral position at the University of Sydney (with Professor Charles L. Birch and Dr. Gordon C. Grigg) in 1978, and was appointed to a lectureship at that institution in 1980. He was appointed to a Professorship in 2003, having relinquished undergraduate teaching to concentrate on research and graduate training in 2002, under fellowships from the Australian Research Council (Australian Professorial Fellowship 2002-2005; Federation Fellowship 2006-2010).

His early research focused on the ecology of snakes, and on the evolutionary factors that have shaped patterns in reptile reproduction (such as the transition from egg-laying to live-bearing, and the evolution of size differences between the sexes, and the selective milieu driving variation in reproductive traits). His initial studies were based mostly in Australia, and mostly with venomous snakes, but he later conducted research on the behavioural ecology of snakes in several parts of the world, notably on red-sided gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) in Canada, vipers in Sweden and France Vipera berus [1] and Gloydius shedaoensis island pit vipers in China, seasnakes Laticauda and Emydocephalus) in the Pacific islands, and reticulated pythons (Python reticulatus]) in Indonesia. He also dissected thousands of preserved snakes in museum collections to document basic natural history patterns of hundreds of species from Australia, the Pacific, and southern Africa. In Australia, he initiated three longterm field-based ecological research programs; one on developmental biology and phenotypic plasticity in scincid lizards of the Brindabella Range near Canberra, jointly with Melanie Elphick; one on the endangered broad-headed snake (Hoplocephalus bungaroides]) near Nowra, jointly with Jonathan Webb; and one on snakes of the Adelaide River floodplain near Darwin, jointly with several postdoctoral collaborators including Thomas Madsen and Gregory P. Brown.

The arrival of the invasion front of highly toxic cane toad (Bufo marinus or Rhinella marina, in alternative naming schemes) at the tropical study site in 2005 prompted a major expansion of the research program, beginning with a central focus on the ecological impact of toads on native fauna, but later expanding to aspects of toad biology and toad control. The discovery that the toad invasion front had accelerated markedly through time, because of much more rapid dispersal by individual toads at the frontline, stimulated another new research program. With colleagues Benjamin L. Phillips and Gregory P. Brown, Shine proposed that the evolutionary acceleration of the toad invasion was caused by a process different from the adaptive processes envisaged by mainstream evolutionary biology. The new explanation relied upon spatial sorting of traits that affected dispersal rates of toads, with only the fastest-moving individuals being able to stay near the increasingly rapidly-moving invasion front. Interbreeding among those fast-moving individuals produced progeny that in some cases were even quicker than their parents, giving rise to a progressive acceleration in invasion speed over time, even if there were no advantages to fast dispersal for the individuals concerned.

Shine has published more than 700 papers in professional journals, written one book (Australian Snakes. A Natural History, 1991) and co-edited another (Grigg, G. C., R. Shine, and H. Ehmann (eds.). 1985. Biology of Australasian Frogs and Reptiles). He received Whitley Awards from the Royal Zoological Society of NSW for both publications. He also received the "Distinguished Herpetologist" award from the Herpetologists' League (1994), the Clarke Medal by The Royal Society of New South Wales (1999), the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award from the American Society of Naturalists (2000), the Henry S. Fitch Award from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (2003), the Mueller Medal from the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), the Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research from the Australian Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens (2006) the MacFarlane Burnet medal from the Australian Academy of Science (2008), the Australian Natural History Medallion from the Royal Society and Society of Naturalists, Victoria (2009), and the Walter Burfitt Prize from the Royal Society of New South Wales (2010). He was elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2003, and appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005. In 2007, a new species of snake (Shine's Whipsnake, Demansia shinei) was named in his honour.

References

• Shea, G. and J. Scanlon. 2007. Revision of the small tropical whipsnakes previously referred to Demansia olivacea and Demansia torquata. Records of the Australian Museum 59: 117-142 http://www.australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Journals/18049/1488_complete.pdf

• Life Scientist, “Shine wins Burnet medal”, http://www.lifescientist.com.au/article/204295/shine_wins_burnet_medal/

• Cosmos magazine, “who’s afraid of the big bad toad?”, http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/2082/www.canetoadsinoz.com

• Catalyst TV show, “meeting the Shine brothers”. http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1860179.htm

• Catalyst TV show, “reptile hero”, http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1723490.htm

• Size and Breeding Information for Australian Snakes. Herp shop, http://www.herpshop.com.au/CareSheets/RickShinesData.html

• Cane toads keep on coming. Nature 28 March 2007, http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070326/full/news070326-7.html

• ABC radio, “controversial project to spread cane toads”, http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2236556.htm

• Australian Academy of Science, http://www.science.org.au/events/sats/sats2009/chairs_shine.html

External Links

• University of Sydney, School of Biological Sciences, http://www.sydney.edu.au/science/biology

• Australian Research Council,http://www.arc.gov.au

• Cane Toad research website, http://www.canetoadsinoz.com

• Shine lab website, http://sydney.edu.au/science/biology/shine/

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