(L-R) Cali Willet, Jaime Gongora, Jessica Fletcher and Danielle Johinke. Cali, Jessica and Danielle are three of the 74 students who worked on the study.
How many undergraduate students does it take publish original research in an academic journal?. Exactly 74 in the case of Faculty of Veterinary Science students from the University of Sydney whose study on saltwater crocodile genetics is published in the Australian Journal of Zoology today. In a rare feat, the students, all undergraduates in their fourth year of a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience, are authors of a study based on five years of research undertaken in a Wildlife and Evolutionary Genetics class. Their work looks at the relationships and genetic structure of wild saltwater crocodiles from the Northern Territory by studying the maternal line. Five separate class groups worked on the research from 2007 to 2011, contributing a total of 1875 hours of research. They analysed genetic material from Northern Territory crocodiles, including nine different river basins in the region, provided by research affiliate Sally Isberg. "The result of the students' accumulated research is a better understanding of the saltwater crocodiles' DNA profiles and how they are distributed in different river basin populations," said Jaime Gongora , from the Faculty of Veterinary Science, who, with other academic staff, taught all of the students involved.
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