Professor Justin Marshall

Position

Australian Professorial Fellow | Affiliate Professor

Qualifications and Awards

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Affiliations

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Associations

The Australian Coral Reef Society (Vice President)
The Australian Neuroscience Society
The Australian Marine Science Association
The Australian Society of Animal Behaviour
Project AWARE

Contact Details

Biography

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Research Interests

Colour vision, colour communication and visual ecology of coral reefs and other habitats
My principle aim and that of the team I work with is to understand how other animals perceive their environment. As arrogant humans we tend to assume we are the pinnacle of evolution, however, certainly in sensory terms this is far from true. By taking an approach to sensory systems which is based around ecology but also includes physiology, anatomy, behaviour and neural integration, we hope to decode signals and their intension in the animal kingdom.

One of the animal groups we work on are the stomatopods (mantis shrimps), reef-dwelling crustaceans with the world's most complex colour vision system. These lowly crustaceans possess 4 times as many colour receptors as humans, 4 of which sample the UV, a region of the spectrum to which we are blind.

The way in which UV and other colours are used in animal communication is a major component of our work at present. This includes reef fish, parrots, bowerbirds, birds of paradise and other colourful animals. Some of the questions to which we seek answers are as follows:
Why are reef fish and parrots so brightly coloured?
How can these groups afford to apparently be so obvious while others invest in camouflage?
Are some animals, which appear obvious to our eyes, well camouflaged for the eyes of other animals?
What is the function of double cones in reef fish and other animals?
What advantage does polarisation vision give?

This work complements other specific projects such as, using animal visual systems to redesign satellite and airborn remote sensing devices, understanding the vision of the ultimate high-speed predators, the billfish and sharks and evolution of vision.

Selected Publications

Fluorescent enhancement of signaling in a mantis shrimp.
Science 303:51.
CH Mazel, TW Cronin, RL Caldwell and NJ Marshall (2004)

Fluorescent signaling in parrots.
Science. 295:92-93
KE Arnold, IPF Owens and NJ Marshall (2002)

Tunable colour vision in a mantis shrimp.
Nature 411:547-548.
TW Cronin, NJ Marshall and RL Caldwell (2001)

The colourful world of the mantis shrimp.
Nature 401:873-874.
Marshall, N.J. and Oberwinkler, J. (1999)

Colour-blind camouflage.
Nature 382:408-409.
NJ Marshall and JB Messenger (1996)

Grants

Prawns in Space
Grant Body: ARC
Grant Period: 2002-2007
Value: 2,000,000

Colour vision and the function of double cones.
Grant Body: ARC
Grant Period: 2005-10
Value: 1,130,000

Polarisation vision in stomatopods
Grant Body: AOARD
Grant Period: 2004-2008
Value: 134,000

Colour vision in elasmobranchs (CI N.Hart)
Grant Body: ARC
Grant Period: 2005-2010
Value: 550,000

Deep-Scope
Grant Body: NOAA
Grant Period: 2007
Value: 360,000

Deep Downunder
Grant Body: ARC
Grant Period: 2007-2010
Value: 2,336,000

Reef fish and Coral Bleaching (U.Siebeck CI)
Grant Body: SeaWorld
Grant Period: 2007
Value: 5,000

CoralWatch: simple technology for coral reef health assessment
Grant Body: UQ Vice Chancellor
Grant Period: 2007-2009
Value: 150,000

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