Museums are custodians of story, and the collections that dwell within them belong to the community of which they are a part. In recent years, though, funding cuts have put significant pressure on many aspects of what museums do so well, in research, collection curation, and public programmes. In a wide ranging conversation, host Michael Mills chats with Dr Kailah Thorn, Curator at Edward de Courcy Clarke Earth Science Museum on why museums matter, and why they need to be properly funded.
 
Both Michael and Kailah have had a great deal of experience in delivering public programmes, and have done so together on several projects at the South Australian Museum, and with Flinders University.
 
In describing her research interests, Kailah has noted…
 
My research speciality is in the taxonomy of Australian fossil scincids, primarily the blue-tongued lizards and their nearest kin in the subfamily Egerniinae. I'm working on descriptions of their extinct relatives and deciphering the evolutionary tree of this group in order to answer bigger questions about where they came from, when they got to Australia and how they have changed since they arrived.
 
Kailah has written a delightful article in The Conversation on how to hunt for fossils responsibly. It is essential reading for amateur and professional fossil collectors, alike… https://theconversation.com/how-to-hunt-fossils-responsibly-5-tips-from-a-professional-palaeontologist-156861
 
You can find Kailah on Twitter at @kailah_thorn https://twitter.com/kailah_thorn
 
You can find Michael at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood
 
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