Associate Professor Maria Byrne

Marine Biologist Associate Professor Maria Byrne has developed Evo-Devo, a research programme on Evolution and Development. This rapidly expanding field of research lies at the core of her ARC funded research and postgraduate teaching program in the Byrne Laboratory in the Department of Anatomy and Histology.

Professor Byrne's research involves investigation of closely related marine species with divergent life histories. With a wealth of unique species for her to investigate around Sydney, Byrne has developed a series of Evo-Devo models. The most famous of these relates to the Patiriella seastars, highly unusual fish which exhibit every life history pattern known to exist in the sea. The Patiriella model system is now used in many textbooks to highlight how selection works on all life stages of marine invertebrates.

In 2003 Professor Byrne discovered and named a new species on the Queensland Coast, Cryptasterian hystera (meaning cryptic star). This species is morphologically identical and yet its larva is morphologically very diverse. She is also the director of One Tree Island Research Station, the University of Sydney's marine laboratory on the Great Barrier Reef. The aquarium facilities there provide the special conditions required to culture many of her marine larvae.

Professor Byrne's Evo-Devo research will provide valuable insight as to how speciation works in the sea.