During his zoology studies in The University of Sydney in 1955, Mark was introduced to marine animals and coastal fieldwork, and this initiated a lifelong interest. His specialization has become the systematics and reproduction of the echinoderm group of marine animals, and he has published extensively.
Mark has been involved in marine science education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. While teaching senior science at Aquinas College in Perth during the 1960's, he led four college expeditions to the Abrolhos Islands where staff and students researched together the fauna and flora and geology and history of the islands. During the 1970's Mark created marine fieldwork experiences for students at Aquinas College in Ringwood, and at the invitation of Dr. Brian Smith introduced a select group of them to assisting with the curation of the Museum Victoria echinoderm collection. From 1975-1977 he was a leader at Coastal Science Education Seminars conducted at Inverloch for teachers by the State College of Victoria at Hawthorn. In the late 1970's he was a founding member of the Marine Science Education Association. In 1977 he became a member of the Marine Studies Group, which was to become the Marine Research Group (currently a sub-group within the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria).
Since the mid-1970's Mark has been involved continuously in marine fieldwork around the southern coasts of Australia, and has contributed more than 7,500 specimens to the Museum Victoria collections. At the same time he has worked on the curation of the Museum's extensive collection of echinoderms, and has discovered many new species and reproductive strategies. In 1980 Mark was invited to become an Honorary Associate of the Museum. In 1993, at the invitation of Dr. Lu, Mark conducted a survey of the benthic fauna between Mawson and Davis Bases in Antarctica as a participant in a Marine Science Cruise conducted by the Antarctic Division on the RSV Aurora Australis. He has presented papers at the International Echinoderm Conferences at Atami (Japan) in 1990, Dijon in 1993, San Francisco in 1996, and Dunedin in 2000.
Mark is currently working on new southern Australian seastar species which have emerged during molecular phylogeny research by colleagues in the University of Otago in Dunedin. And is working collaboratively with the United States National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, describing new deep water holothurian species from the Atlantic and Pacific and Antarctic Oceans which he discovered in the Smithsonian collections during research visits in 2001 and 2002.
Elephant seals (and Mark) on the beach at Davis Base in eastern Antarctica in February 1993.
Iceberg and pack ice in Prydz Bay near the Larsemann Hills in eastern Antarctica, in February 1993.
Mawson Base on Horseshoe Harbour in eastern Antarctica, and Mount Henderson, from R.S.V. Aurora Australis in February 1993.
Grounded icebergs and evening light on the Fram Bank in eastern Antarctic in February 1993.
Live colour photo of the seastar Smilasterias multipara O'Loughlin & O'Hara, 1990, from the basalt coast of south-eastern Australia. This is the type specimen (holotype) which defines the species. The females brood their young in the stomach and release them as independent juveniles in late October or early November each year. The longest arm is 30 mm long.
Note: Terms of Use
Date Created: 14-Feb-2003
Last Modified: 21-Feb-2003
Author: Mark O'Loughlin
Email:
[email protected]
© Copyright 2003 Mark O'Loughlin. All rights reserved.
The creation of the website was facilitated by Noppramart Prasitmonthon
