astronomy

Trevor Worthy

Trevor Worthy is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Trevor Worthy rather than just read about it. In short: Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates. Biography Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High School.

Key takeaways

Trevor Worthy belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Trevor Worthy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Trevor Worthy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates.

Biography Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High School. He began his career as a largely self-taught palaeontologist, after becoming interested in fossils through caving. Worthy completed his BSc and MSc at the University of Waikato, then did a second Master's degree at Victoria University of Wellington. In 1987, Worthy described three new leiopelmatid frog species from cave subfossils: the Aurora frog (Leiopelma auroraensis), Markham's frog (Leiopelma markhami), and the Waitomo frog (Leiopelma waitomoensis). In the 1990s, he discovered several fossil bird species new to science, including the long-billed wren (Dendroscansor decurvirostris) in 1991, Scarlett's shearwater (Puffinus spelaeus) in 1991, and the Niue night heron (Nycticorax kalavikai) in 1995. In 1991, he also described the Northland skink, a fossil skink species new to science. In 1998, Worthy excavated subfossil bones in Fiji, where he found remains of the flightless Viti Levu giant pigeon (Natunaornis gigoura), the Viti Levu scrubfowl (Megapodius amissus), the Viti Levu snipe (Coenocorypha miratropica), the giant Fiji ground frog (Platymantis megabotoniviti), and the small freshwater crocodile Volia athollandersoni. The holotypes of these species were deposited in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. For years, Worthy has been involved in the excavation of Miocene fossils (the Saint Bathans Fauna) from a prehistoric lake in Central Otago, including the oldest known moa bones, the oldest tuatara bones, and the first known fossil land mammal from New Zealand. Worthy's research, based in Waitomo Caves, Masterton, Nelson, and Te Papa, had been funded by grants from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology since 1991, but in 2005 his funding was cut by the Foundation. From 2005 to 2009, he was at the University of Adelaide, where he received his PhD in 2008. He received a Doctor of Science from the University of Waikato in 2011. He was at the University of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011, back at the University of Adelaide during 2012, and has been at Flinders University since 2013. In May 2019, he ended his 30-year research association with Te Papa at protest to the staff restructuring controversy. Worthy is author or co-author of numerous research papers about prehistoric life in New Zealand. For the book The Lost World of the Moa (2002), he and Richard Holdaway received the D. L. Serventy Medal from the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 2003 for an outstanding published work about Australasian avifauna. Below is a list of taxa that Worthy has contributed to naming:

References

External links Personal page at Flinders University Canterbury University – short biography Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa collections associated with Trevor Worthy

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Trevor Worthy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Trevor Worthy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Trevor Worthy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Trevor Worthy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Trevor Worthy

In research: Trevor Worthy appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Trevor Worthy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Trevor Worthy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1957 births, 20th-century New Zealand zoologists, 21st-century New Zealand zoologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Trevor Worthy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Trevor Worthy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Trevor Worthy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Trevor Worthy out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Trevor Worthy in simple terms?

Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates. Biography Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High School.

Why does Trevor Worthy matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Trevor Worthy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Trevor Worthy.