Rate My Professor Marcel Cardillo

Marcel Cardillo is a Professor in the Division of Ecology and Evolution in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University, a position he has held since 2008. He leads the Cardillo Group, which investigates macroevolution, macroecology, biogeography, and conservation biology. Cardillo obtained his PhD from the University of Queensland, followed by postdoctoral research at the Institute of Zoology and Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, supported by a Natural Environment Research Council Fellowship in 2005. Upon returning to Australia, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship and the J G Russell Award in 2008. His research explores large-scale patterns of biodiversity, including the latitudinal diversity gradient, the evolution of biodiversity hotspots such as southwest Australia, correlates of extinction risk across taxa, and the impacts of environmental change on species. Cardillo utilizes extensive datasets for plants and animals, employing comparative phylogenetic analyses and computational modeling to infer macroevolutionary and macroecological processes.

Cardillo's contributions include co-authoring the textbook Origins of Biodiversity: An Introduction to Macroevolution and Macroecology with Lindell Bromham, published by Oxford University Press in 2019. His highly cited works encompass Multiple causes of high extinction risk in large mammal species (Science, 2005), Human population density and extinction risk in the world's carnivores (PLoS Biology, 2004), The delayed rise of present-day mammals (Nature, 2007), PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals (Ecology, 2009), and The predictability of extinction: biological and external correlates of decline in mammals (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2008). More recent publications address priorities for conserving terrestrial mammals based on over-the-horizon extinction risk (Current Biology, 2023), paleobiome dynamics shaping Gondwanan plant radiations (PNAS, 2025), and islands as engines of language diversity (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2024). Additional honors include Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and a Transdisciplinary & Innovation Grant, both in 2016. He supervises research students and postdocs in these fields.