Cheyenne Payne​

About me

I am a 4th-year undergraduate at UCSD studying marine biology and computer science. My research focuses on the phylogeny, biodiversity, and morphology of marine invertebrates, particularly annelids and echinoderms. Beyond my work in this lab I am interested in the biochemistry of bioluminescence in marine invertebrates and develop programs for analyzing biological data using high performance computing systems (e.g. SDSC CIPRES).

CV

Contact:  cypayne at ucsd.edu

Current Projects

        Actinal surface of a Xyloplax specimen from Juan de Fuca Ridge. 

Xyloplax

SICB Annual Meeting 2017 Abstract:
A New Species of Sea Daisy (Xyloplax, Asteroidea, Echinodermata) 
PAYNE, CY*; CARVAJAL, JI; GRUPE, B; ROUSE, GW
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

Xyloplax is a genus of sea stars found on sunken wood in the deep ocean. Their circular and petaloid bodies, which lends them their common name, “sea daisy”, and their exclusive diet of wood makes them an unusual and rare element of deep sea ecosystems. There are currently only three described species of Xyloplax. A fourth species was recently collected at a depth of 2200 meters near the Juan de Fuca hydrothermal vent system, off Oregon. The specimens were obtained from wood blocks deployed for three years. Though geographically close to another described species of Xyloplax from the northeastern Pacific, X. janetae, the new species was found to be markedly different, with a corrected mitochondrial COI distance of 17.35%. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to describe the skeletal structure and reproductive organs of the new species.
Freshly hatched Dinophilus female (right) and dwarf male (left) larvae.

Dinophilus

Individuals from a population of Dinophilus from the Birch Aquarium, SIO were found to be different from known species of Dinophilus on both a morphological and molecular level. However, new species status cannot be confirmed until molecular data is collected from a species, D. kincaidi, whose type locality is Wilappa Bay, WA, US.
An adult (female) Dinophilus from the Birch Aquarium, SIO.