Paul Byrne

Paul Byrne is a Graduate Student-in-Residence in the Dinosaur Institute, conducting research at the museum in fulfillment of his doctoral degree in Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Paul was born in Ventura, California, and grew up bodysurfing, exploring the outdoors, and convincing his twin brother to help him dig up the lawn in search of fossils. Paul received a B.A. in Biological Anthropology and a minor in Geology (Paleobiology) from the University of California, Davis in addition to attending university and researching abroad at the Universidad de Complutense and the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in Madrid. Paul is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California and a researcher at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in the Department of Integrative and Anatomical Sciences. Paleontological Fieldwork has taken Paul all across Utah and New Mexico. Paul’s research objectives seek to better understand how to reconstruct soft-tissue anatomy in extinct archosaurs through bone histology and CT scanning. Specifically, Paul’s thesis is focused on reconstructing early archosaur lung structure and the size of red blood cells. Paul wants to use the information gained from this research to better understand the early evolution of archosaur activity levels.