The Keogh Lab

My lab has all the equipment necessary for research in morphological and molecular systematics and reptile ecology and behaviour. Molecular work is done in the centralised molecular evolution lab and other work is done in my own lab, in our lizard room or in the aquarium room.

Molecular Systematics:

• The School of Botany and Zoology has a very large and well equipped molecular evolution lab with bench space for approximately 30 people. My group does their molecular work out of this lab. The lab is fully set up for sequencing, microsatellites, allozymes, etc., and has its own Automated ABI Sequencer. In addition, my group has their own centrifuges, water baths, PCR machine, vortex, fridge, freezer, pipettes, etc. I also have a liquid nitrogen cryoshipper for field work.

Morphological Systematics:

• Leica MZ8 stereo microscope with drawing tube
• Digital and slide calipers
• The School of Botany and Zoology maintains a large teaching collection in its own museum facility built in 1996. There is a lot of storage space for specimens, a fume hood, and large workbench.

Lab and Field Based Ecology / Behaviour:

• Access to the Botany & Zoology vehicle fleet which includes station wagons, vans and four-wheel drives
• We have our own temperature controlled "lizard" room that can house about 400 lizards individually.
• We share a large temperature contolled room that at the moment is being used for Bob's fish.
• We also have access to two large temperature controlled glasshouses for experimental work.
• We have built a series of large outdoor enclosures for lizards (or other things). 40 of these are 2m in diameter and 23 of them are 4m in diameter. We also have several very large enclosures (one that is 10x10m, two that are 6x2.5m, two that are 6x1.2m).
• Noosing poles for lizards, snake sticks and grabbers
• Pesola precision scales (10g, 100g, 300g, 1000g)
• Petzl headlamps
• Two digital scales, one accurate to 0.01 grams and one accurate to 0.0001 grams
• PIT tag reader and sterile injectable tags
• GPS
• Radio-telemetry equipment
• Video equipment, time-lapse video, etc.

Other Lab Info:

• I subscribe to the following journals and have most back to 1990: Evolution, Systematic Biology, Cladistics, Herpetologica, Copeia, Journal of Herpetology, Herpetofauna, African Journal of Herpetology.
• I have an extensive library on various aspects of herpetology and evolution.
• Students have access to my reprint collection, which is fully computer data-based.
• ANU has one of the fastest network systems in Australia and all campus computers are connected to it. My students have their own computers with email, WWW and access to Current Contents.

Other Facilities Available in the Division of Botany and Zoology:

• Vehicle fleet (station wagons, four-wheel drives, vans)
• Well equipped histology lab
• Glasshouses
• Electron and advanced light microscopes
• Access to the ANU's SUN microsystems and UNIX network
• Workshop has two full time staff available to help build research equipment
• Full time photographer with access to various types of specialist camera and video equipment