Join us on Friday the 14th of August to celebrate the end of the T2 intensive period with a night of pizza and movies. In honour of the late Sam Neill we will be screening the landmark blockbuster Jurassic Park in the EM2 lecture theatre on Armidale Campus. The showing will begin officially at 6pm, but feel free to arrive earlier if you would like to mingle. Free pizza, popcorn and drinks will also be provided, so please notify us of any dietary requirements. We hope to see you there!

The UNE Geoscience Societies AGM for 2026 will be held in person and online on the 12th August 2026. The in-person event will be held at the Whitebull Hotel starting at 6:30pm. Dinner (up to the value of $30) will be on us! Places are limited, so be sure to book you place at the table! The AGM itself, and the online event in Gathertown, will begin at 7pm. There will be 3 'door prizes' for online attendees so be sure to come along and have a say! If you would like to be a part of our committee, there are multiple roles up for nomination. These include: President Secretary Treasurer Sponsorship Coordinator Events Coordinator Socials Coordinator First Year Liaison Second Year Liaison Online Representative If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for any of the above positions, please email unegs@myune.edu.au. See you there!

Join Blake and Jules as they talk about their recent research adventures exploring museum collections and conducting field work. In-person at the Natural History Museum or online in Gathertown!

🐾 The UNE Zoology Society & The UNE Geoscience Society present:  Trivia Night!  On Friday the 15th of May we will be holding a joint event at the Bistro with trivia questions, free pizza, and prizes! The Bistro Bar will also be open for drinks & food purchase. Come along with your friends and form teams to compete for some neat society goodies & prizes, with a blend of fun zoology/geo/general science questions, for everyone at all levels. You can also keep an eye out for unit-specific questions to keep you on your toes for exams!  Tickets are free for society members, and 5$ for non members.  The night is open for anyone online to join us over UNE Gathertown, where you will be able to compete for your teams place on the podium with an online submission form.  We are excited to see everyone there!  Head here to get your ticket today!

Come along to join the UNE Geoscience & Zoology Societies on the 16th April for pizza, movie, and spotlighting! Meet us at the Natural History Museum at 5:30pm for pizza and a screening of 'Night at the Museum', followed by spotlighting from 8pm at Dumaresq Dam. We will be carpooling out to the dam, so don't worry if you don't have your own transport! If you have your own headtorch, please bring it along! We will be supplying headtorches, but there is only a limited number of these! Please dress warmly with appropriate clothes and wear good, comfy shoes. Some fauna we may get to see include: Possums Kangaroos Gliders Echidnas Variety of birds Microbats Native Frogs Variety of lizards and herps Variety of inverts Make sure you RSVP by 7pm, on Wednesday 15th April (the day before the event) to secure your spot! If you have dietary requirements, please let us know in your RSVP. Head here to register!

The UNE Gaming Society and Geoscience Society have teamed up to bring you a Games Night to help with a brain break during intensives! Come along to The Bistro from 6pm to enjoy some board games, video games, or even VR! A great way to relax and socialise at an otherwise very intensive time. We will even provide the food! The bar will also be open to provide a selection of non-alcholic drinks including mocktails for you to enjoy. Not on campus for intensives, but still want to join in? This event will also be online on the rooftop in Gathertown! Please note as this is a catered event, a valid ticket will need to be shown to redeem your meal. Book your free ticket now!  

If you have woken to the sound of birds singing early in the morning, you have experienced a phenomenon known as the ‘dawn chorus’. But why do birds do this and when did it originate? I conducted a literature review to try and find a likely origin of the behaviour by looking at research defining the dawn chorus, the prevalence among extant bird lineages, and the anatomically relevant syrinx along with its evolution. Did birds start singing at dawn more recently, or did non-avian dinosaurs also call in the early mornings of the Mesozoic? Join Marama in the Museum's seminar room on campus, or online in Gathertown, to hear about this amazing project.

This is a Bonus Seminar aimed for our first year students beginning their Geoscience journey at UNE! Rory MacKett completed his Bachelor of Geoscience at UNE, and is now near completion of his Honours degree. Join him in the Geology lab for "An informal talk regarding my experiences studying geoscience at UNE and working as a early career geologist. Things I've learnt and things I wish I knew along the way." Friday, 13th March, at the end of the lab session, ~12:30pm. In person, or online in Gathertown!

The Minerama Fossicking, Gem & Jewellery Show is held every year at Glen Innes Showgrounds. This year, we are providing an opportunity for you to attend! UNEGS have organised a mini-bus to drive a bunch of you up there for the day on Saturday 7th March. We will be leaving from the Geoscience carpark (next to the Natural Resources Building) at 8:45am, and returning at approximately 2-5pm (depending on how long people want to stay). This is a free event but places are limited so be sure to register today!

Come and explore the New England region to marvel at the geology and try your luck with a bit of prospecting! Torrington is known for it's beryl, fluorite, aquamarine, emerald, bismuth, topaz and more! If you are an aspiring geology student, or you just love gemstones, get involved with UNEGS (University of New England Geosciences Club)! The bus will be leaving the Geoscience carpark at 8:15am, and will return by 5:00pm. Lunch is provided, but you will need to bring your own snacks and water. Enclosed shoes are a must, as well as appropriate outdoor clothing (think long pants, long sleeves, hat, sunnies). Please bring sunscreen and any toiletries - there will be limited opportunites out in the field, bring what you must. If you have your own panning equipment please bring it along with you. Spaces are limited so book your FREE ticket today!  

Join us to hear all about Matt's adventures on the GSA field trip - Geology of the Hunter Valley Weekend: the Permian from whoa to woe! Matt, along with two other UNE students were sponsored by the UNE Geoscience Society to attend this amazing experience, thanks to funding received from the Australian Coal Preparation Society (ACPS). This event will be held in person in the seminar room at the Natural History Museum, and online in Gathertown. You must have a UNE email to sign in. If you need a guest pass, please let us know when you register. 

Join us for talks from two of our HDR students who are headed to CAVEPS in November. The Conference of Australasian Vertebrate Evolution, Palaeontology and Systematics is held every two years and an opportunity for vertebrate palaeontologists to share their research. Zak Hayman & Luke Royce-Haig from Dinolab in the Palaeoscience Research Centre would like to share with our UNE students a sneak preview of what they are taking to CAVEPS. In person in the Museum seminar room, or online in Gathertown. Be sure to request a guest pass when registering if you do not have a UNE email address!   Zak Hayman: The diversity of archaeolamnid sharks in the Late Cretaceous Lamniform sharks represent one of the nine modern orders of sharks, with 15 living species. In the Late Cretaceous however, lamniforms were the predominant group of sharks that swam alongside an array of marine reptiles, with dozens of fossil species known globally. Despite this, much of their Cretaceous diversity remains obscured due to superficial similarities in tooth shapes shared by many species. The Archaeolamnidae is one such lamniform group suffering this conundrum, with teeth referrable to the titular species Archaeolamna kopingensis spanning a range of nearly 30 million years. Let’s see how well this holds up under some qualitative and quantitative scrutiny…      Luke Royce-Haig: An analysis of the function of epidermal papillae in sauropod skin Sauropod dinosaurs represent the largest known terrestrial animals in the history of life on earth, with large taxa potentially exceeding 50 tons in mass. As a result, the implications of this extreme gigantism have become a dominant theme in the scholarship surrounding these animals. One of the key challenges faced by large-bodied animals is thermoregulation. Due to high thermal inertia, large animals have issues dissipating heat effectively. Due to their often immense sizes, it is likely sauropods would have been particularly vulnerable to this issue. While numerous thermoregulatory adapations have already been proposed, sauropod skin has received little prior academic attention. Sauropod integument is notable for the presence of epidermal papillae (small, dome-like structures) across the surface of the scales. It is hypothesized that these papillae may have aided thermoregulation by increasing the surface area of the animal.