Intraspecific Mammalian Phylogeography: Conservation Connections between Australia and New Guinea
New Guinea forms Australia’s most recent zoogeographic province. The geo-political entities of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia’s largest provinces do not immediately suggest nor reflect its zoogeographic heritage with continental Australia to non biogeographers. Acknowledging political, cultural and economic uniqueness alone, may unconciously forego the opportunity for development of conservation initiatives that can embrace both the differences and the similarities among the three nations. Despite a common zoogeographic history only a few "cross boarder" exchanges of knowledge actively take place. Examining New Guinean mammalian species that are the most recently diverged from mainland Australia assists in demonstrating connectivity and heightening awareness for potential bridging utility of a great deal of mammalian conservation endeavours undertaken within the region. Whilst rarely highlighted, New Guinea is close to a major wave of mammalian extinctions similar to that Australia experienced last century. Focussing on intraspecific molecular divergence assists in demonstrating the close phylogenetic associations rather than the distances. We are examining mammals common to both sides of the Torres Strait via molecular markers and sequencing to provide measures and timings of divergence. Accurate assignment of levels of taxonomic distinctiveness will aid in answering some intriguing anomalies apparent in some species distributions. The most striking, that of the bronze quoll Dasyurus spartacus a dasyurid carnivorous marsupial restricted to the TransFly and its close relationship to Australia’s western quoll Dasyurus geoffroii. Of all mammals restricted in New Guinea to the TransFly Ecoregion, the bronze quoll is the only species not also found in Northern Australia - a puzzling biogeographical oddity. Highlighting New Guineas mammalian genetic similarities with Australia rather than its better known differences, we hope to further stimulate a platform already ripe for conservation collaboration on many fronts that has not been exhaustively explored between the three countries, turning the barriers back into bridges.