Pat Nuttall laboratory reagent, a result that was published in "Nature" in 1977. She then worked with ornithologist Chris Perrins trying to identify the virus responsible for puffinosis, a disease that affects the Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus") sea bird. During this research, Nuttall visited sea-bird colonies and became interested in ticks, arthropods that often infest sea birds as well as other vertebrates, and can act as vectors for disease. In the early 1980s, Nuttall started to study viruses transmitted by ticks, initially focusing on orbiviruses, nairoviruses and thogotoviruses. While performing experiments designed to explore whether "Thogoto virus", an influenza-like virus, can be
Trevor H. Worthy the Waitomo frog ("Leiopelma waitomoensis"). In the 1990s Worthy 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