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campusreview.com.au
JCU link to new species
The Akainacephalus dinosaur (top). Image: Andrey Atuchin
and Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
James Cook University scientist
helps discover and name dinosaur.
V
isiting Dutch national Jelle Wiersma,
a PhD candidate at JCU, spent
more than two years co-writing a
paper on the skeletal remains of a dinosaur
that was unearthed in the US.
The paper, of which he is the lead author,
has been published in the peer-reviewed
environmental sciences journal PeerJ.
The skeletal remains of the dinosaur were
found in a quarry in 2004 in Utah, alongside
the bones of a duck-billed dinosaur and
other animals, and are estimated to be 76
million years old.
The 5m long, 1.5m high, spiked, armoured
reptile with a bony club-like tail has been
named Akainacephalus and is being
Real-world exposure
Call for more partnerships
between schools and industry.
M
any students aren’t getting
opportunities to connect with
industry, and the government
must make efforts to bring the worlds of
education and work closer together, a
think tank has argued.
4
In its report, Connecting the Worlds of
Learning and Work, the Mitchell Institute
at Victoria University said there has been
growing consensus that partnerships
between schools and industry are an
effective way to connect young people to
the world of work and to match skills with
future workforce demand.
Mitchell Institute director Megan
O’Connell said as young people are staying
in education longer than ever before,
exhibited at the Past Worlds Gallery of the
Natural History Museum of Utah.
The genus name is derived from the
Greek words akaina, which means ‘thorn’
or ‘spike’, and cephalus, meaning ‘head’,
Wiersma said.
He began his paper on the dinosaur
in 2012.
“When I started my masters, the skeleton
had just finished preparation and … we
noticed there were some significant
differences to some of the other dinosaurs
in North America,” Wiersma said.
“I described it and compared it to all the
other animals, and then we came to the
conclusion that it was an entire new genus
of species.”
He said several animals were found in
the quarry and, while he was present when
the skeletal remains of the duck-billed
dinosaur were discovered, he was not
there when the remains of the new species
were recovered.
Besides the revelation of a new dinosaur,
there’s more in store he said.
“I described another new species of
dinosaur which will be published later,”
Wiersma said. ■
they might not connect with the world of
work until their 20s.
O’Connell said while some students
have access to industry mentoring and
entrepreneurship programs, it isn’t the case
for all students.
“Partnerships between schools and
industry is one of the best ways to make
sure students understand and develop the
skills they need for their future careers, so
this needs to be a priority for all Australian
schools,” she said.
School-industry partnerships can improve
young people’s transitions from school
to careers, help employers grow skills for
emerging jobs and address workforce gaps
and increase national productivity, the
group said.
Still, the Mitchell Institute noted that
schools and teachers face challenges in
prioritising industry partnerships in busy
school environments.
O’Connell added that Australia must
do more to simplify the “complex
administrative requirements getting in the
way of partnerships working”.
“We need a system that supports industry
partnerships alongside the curriculum in all
Australian schools,” she said. ■