Sarah Catalano
3MT topic: The Secret Lives of Dicyemid Parasites
Discipline: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Faculty: Sciences
Supervisor: Prof Bronwyn Gillanders, A/Prof Ian Whittington and Prof Steve Donnellan.
Project Summary:
Dicyemid parasites are small, simple organisms found in the kidneys of squid, octopus and cuttlefish. My research aims to address the unknowns in their lifecycle, their position in the tree of life and resolve the confusion that surrounds some of the families, genera and species within this phylum. I am also using dicyemid parasites as biological tags to assess host population structure, which is important for the identification, management and conservation of cephalopod stocks.