Paleovirology is an emerging field which seeks to understand why ancient viruses have inserted fragments of themselves into the genomes of many different species. Emma Harding is a UNSW PhD candidate who is researching these viral fossils to improve the conservation of Australian marsupials such as the Koala and Tasmanian devil.

Literature links:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7172163

https://academic.oup.com/ve/article/7/2/veab076/6362200