Anthony Wright

Position: Honorary Principal Fellow

email: awright@uow.edu.au

Tony Wright was a member of the teaching staff of the Department of Geology and then the School of Geosciences for more than 26 years, being concerned with the teaching of palaeontology, stratigraphy and geological mapping in particular. He is now an Honorary Principal Fellow in the School. Tony is honorary editor of Alcheringa, a journal published twice yearly by the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists.

Research Interests

• Devonian invertebrates of NSW

• Biogeography of Palaeozoic coral faunas

• Middle Palaeozoic faunas of Iran and New Zealand

• Silurian graptolites of NSW

These are mainly in middle Palaeozoic biostratigraphy, with particular interests in tetracorals, brachiopods and trilobites of the Devonian. These studies have focussed on the Lachlan Fold Belt, reflecting a long-standing interest in the geology of the Mudgee-Cudgegong district.

In recent years he has been collaborating with Dr Barrie Rickards of the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge and Dr Gordon Packham, formerly of the University of Sydney, in the study of Silurian graptolites of NSW, with particular emphasis on the biostratigraphic, depositional and tectonic importance and taxonomy of the graptolite faunas of the Four Mile Creek and Spring-Quarry Creek areas west of Orange.

Ongoing collaborative research on the Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian fossils of southern and east-central Iran has been under way since 1991. A former PhD student, Dr Mir Alireza Hamedi, brought to Australia collections of a variety of almost completely unstudied Cambrian-Ordovician-Silurian invertebrate faunas from the Tabas and Kerman distrticts of Iran. Tony made trips to Iran in 1991, 1996 and 1997, and made further significant collections. Various faunal groups have been studied by a team of internationally distinguished palaeontologists, and several more papers are still in preparation.

Recent Publications include:

Wright, A.J., Talent, J.A., Young, G.C. & Laurie, J.R., eds, 2000. Palaeobiogeography of Australasian Faunas and Floras. Memoir of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 23, 516 pp.

Pickett, J.W., Burrow, C.J., Holloway, D.J., Munson, T.J., Percival, I.G., Rickards, R.B., Sherwin, L., Simpson, A.J., Strusz, D.L., Turner, S. & Wright, A.J., 2000. Silurian palaeobiogeography of Australia. Memoir of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 23, 127-165.

Talent, J.A., Mawson, R., Aitchison, J.C., Becker, R.T., Bell, K.N., Bradshaw, M.A., Burrow, C.J., Cook, A.G., Dargan, G.M., Douglas, J.G., Edgecombe, G.D., Feist, M., Jones, P.J., Long, J.A., Phillips-Ross, J.R., Pickett, J.W., Playford, G., Rickards, R.B., Webby, B.D., Winchester-Seeto, T., Wright, A.J., Young, G.C. & Zhen, Y.-Y., 2000. Devonian palaeobiogeography of Australia and adjoining regions. Memoir of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 23, 167-257.

Wright, A.J., Talent, J.A. & Young, G.C., eds, 2000. Palaeobiology of Australasian faunas and floras. Historical Biology 15, 191 pp.

Zhen, Y.-Y., Wright, A.J. & Jell, J.S., 2000. Rugose coral diversifications and migrations in the Devonian of Australasia. Historical Biology 15, 61-76.

Rickards, R.B., Hamedi, M.A. & Wright, A.J., 2001. An unusual late Arenig assemblage of graptolites, rhabdopleurans hemichordates and chitinous hydroids from the Banestan area, east-central Iran. Alcheringa 25, 169-190.

Packham, G.H., Percival, I.G., Rickards, R.B. & Wright, A.J., 2001. Late Silurian and Early Devonian biostratigraphy of the Hill End Trough and the Limekilns area, New South Wales. Alcheringa 25, 251-261.

Wright, A.J., 2001a. A new Early Devonian operculate coral from eastern Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 58, 21-35.

Wright, A.J., 2001b . Bibliography of Palaeozoic biogeography of Iran. . Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 58, 255-271.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2001c. Alcheringa 25 (3-4), pp. 263-445.

Rickards, R.B. & Wright, A.J., 2001. Early Devonian graptolites from Limekilns, New South Wales. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement, 58, 122-131.

Rickards, R.B., Hamedi, M.A. & Wright, A.J., 2001. Late Ordovician and Early Silurian graptolites from southern Iran. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 58, 103-122.

Rickards, R.B. & Wright, A.J., 2002. Lazarus taxa, refugia and relict faunas: evidence from graptolites. Journal of the Geological Society of London 159, 1-4.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2002a. Alcheringa 26 (1-2), pp. 1-351.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2002a. Alcheringa 26 (3-4), pp. 353-530.

Rickards, R.B. & Wright, A.J., 2003. The Pristiograptus dubius (Suess, 1851) species group and iterative evolution in the Mid- and Late Silurian. Scottish Journal of Geology 39, 61-69.

Rickards, R.B., Packham, G.H., Wright, A.J. & Williamson, P.L., 2003. New name for Silurian graptolite from NSW. Alcheringa 27, 77.

Rickards, R.B., Chapman, A.J., Wright, A.J & Packham, G.H., 2003. Dendroid and tuboid graptolites from the Llandovery (Silurian) of the Four Mile Creek area, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 55, 305-330.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2003a. Alcheringa 27 (1-2), pp. 1-171.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2003b. Alcheringa 27 (3-4), pp. 1173-356.

Rickards, R.B. & Wright, A.J., 2004a. Early Silurian graptolites from Cadia, New South Wales. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 125, 173-175.

Edgecombe, G.D. & Wright, A.J., 2004. Silicified Early Devonian trilobites from Brogans Creek, New South Wales. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 125, 177-188.

Wright, A.J. & Strusz, D.L., 2004. Wenlock (Early Silurian) brachiopods from the Orange district, New South Wales. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 125, 165-172.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2004. Alcheringa 28 (1), pp. 1-331.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2004. Alcheringa 28 (2), pp. 333-514.

Rickards, R.B. & Wright, A.J., 2004b. Enigmagraptus n. gen., a new graptoloid (Pridoli, Silurian, New South Wales, Australia). Paläontologische Zeitschrift 78, 189-194.

Bruton, D.L., Wright, A.J. & Hamedi, M.A., 2004. Ordovician trilobites of Iran. Palaeontographica A271, 111-149.

Percival, I.G. & Wright, A.J., 2005. A new Silurian species of Trimerella (Brachiopoda: Craniata) from the Orange district, New South Wales. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 126, 111-120.

Rickards, R.B., Parkes, R.A. & Wright, A.J., 2005. Llandovery (Early Silurian) graptolites from the Quidong Basin, NSW. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 126, 143-152.

Rickards, R.B., Farrell, J.R., Wright, A.J. & Morgan, E.J., 2005. Silurian graptolites from the Barnby Hills Shale and the Hanover Formation, New South Wales. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 126, 153-169.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2005. Alcheringa 29 (1), pp. 1-184.

Wright, A.J. ed., 2004. Alcheringa 29 (2), pp. 185-363.