The conservation genomics of three Australian mammal species: Petaurus breviceps, Petaurus norfolcensis and Dasyurus maculatus

The earth is entering a sixth mass extinction, and terrestrial mammal extinctions in Australia have occurred at a faster rate in the last 200 years than any other country in the world. When a threatened mammal species experiences inbreeding depression, genetic drift or a genetic bottleneck, their risk of extinction increases. Researching and detecting these processes is crucial as it allows managers to initiate genetic rescue before it is too late. Conservation genomics is a field that provides vital information to species managers, with genome-complexity reduction techniques detecting thousands of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genome-wide SNPs provide researchers with precise estimates of population genetic diversity and structure and can be used to identify candidate adaptive loci. Such information is vital for species management plans and recovery actions. This thesis used genome-wide SNPs and mitochondrial DNA to investigate the population genomics, hybridisation and adaptive potential of three endemic Australian mammal species: the common sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) (n = 90), threatened squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) (n = 87) and threatened spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) (n = 121).