Education

Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, 1985
A.B. Colgate University, 1980

Research Interests

Most of my current research focuses on major evolutionary transitions and evolutionary innovation. I am currently attempting to understand both the role of developmental invention in generating novel morphologies and how new niches are constructed to facilitate the persistence of these new inventions. Much o f my work has focused on the events of the early radiation of animals about 540 million years ago, but I am beginning to look at other events as well.

Causes and Consequences of the end-Permian Mass Extinction
The great end-Permian mass extinction occurred 252 million years ago, eliminating about half of all marine families, and perhaps as many as 95% of all marine invertebrate species. Significant extinctions occurred on land as well among tetrapods, insects and plants. The causes of this mass extinction are still unclear, but work over the past decade has dramatically reduced the number of hypotheses. I recently published a book by Princeton University Press, entitled: “EXTINCTION: How Life on Earth Nearly Died 250 Million years ago”. Together with Sam Bowring of MIT and Jin Yugan of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and their colleagues, we have been trying to understand the rate and causes of the marine component of this mass extinction, particularly in south China, where there are numerous excellent sections across the Permo-Triassic boundary. In 1998 we showed that the mass extinction occurred in less than 500,000 years (Bowring et al., 1998) and showed the catastrophic nature of the extinction at the Meishan section in South China (Jin et al., 2000). Currently we are working on tests of proposed impact signatures for the extinction.

Biotic Recovery Following Mass Extinctions
My work on the end-Permian mass extinction stems from my interest in evolutionary innovations, and particularly in those following the great mass extinctions. These events are classically seen as generators of evolutionary novelty, and I am interested in the patterns of survival and rediversification, how rapidly these changes occur, and how ecological assemblages re-form. Although I am interested in the recoveries after all of the major mass extinctions, my own work has focused on the Early Triassic, and particularly on gastropods. Gastropods exhibit an interesting pattern in which some lineages disappear from the fossil record during the late Permian, prior to the mass extinction, and reappear during the recovery phase. This Lazarus phenomenon provides some important clues to the relative importance of continuing environmental disturbance vs. ecological retardation. Together with colleagues at the Santa Fe Institute, I am also developing models of biotic recovery that we can test with data from the fossil record.

Evolutionary History of Paleozoic Gastropods
My systematic emphasis is Paleozoic gastropods, primarily those of the Permian and Triassic, and I continued to analyze the patterns of extinction across the Permo-Triassic boundary, and the patterns of recovery in the Triassic. Alex Nutzel, a recent post-doc, and I are developing a database of Permian and Triassic gastropod occurrences to examine extinction and recovery patterns in greater detail. Peter Wagner and I have recently studied the evolutionary patterns of the Paleozoic gastropods. This work indicates that functional constraints funneled Paleozoic gastropods into a limited number of morphotypes, which consequently evolved multiple times through the Paleozoic. In the aftermath of the Permian mass extinction, the ecological world they faced had changed so completely that many of these morphotypes were no longer viable and disappeared.

EARTHTIME Initiative
High-resolution geochronology now provides the opportunity for paleontologists and geologists to study evolutionary and geological rates in deep time to a much higher degree of precision than was previously possible. Sam Bowring at MIT and I have initiated a community-wide effort to develop a high-resolution geological time scale over the coming decade. More information is on the EARTHTIME website: http://earth-time.org/

Research Assistants, Current and Former Post-doctoral Fellows, and Students

Post-Doctoral:

• Gunther Eble (1997- 2000)
• Nigel Hughes(1992-1993) Currently Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of California, Riverside
• Alexander Nützel (1998-1999)
• Christopher Sidor (2001)
• Sherman Suter (1994-1995, 1996-1998)Currently Associate Book Review Editor, Science
• Peter Wagner (1995-1996) Currently Assistant Curator, Department of Geology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
• Matthew Wills (1995) Currently Dept. of Biology, University of Bath, UK
• Thomas Olzewski, (2002-2003) Currently Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geology Texas A & M University

Pre-Doctoral

• Peter Wagner

Summer Interns

• William Pastor (2002)
• Carla Nappi (1997)
• Eugene Hunt (1995)
• Phillip Gottchalk (1995, 1996)
• Jonathon Marcot (1994, 1997)
• Matthew Kosnik (1994, 1996)
• Stephen Schellenberg (1993)

Affiliations

• Associate, Earth Systems History Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
• Part-Time resident faculty, Santa Fe Institute. http://www.santafe.edu/ and Chair, Science Steering Committee
• Honorary member, Academic Committee, Laboratory of Earth Surface System (China Univ. Geosciences), P. R. China.

Honors

• Charles Schuchert Award, Paleontological Society, 1996
• Overseas Visiting Scholar, St. John’s College, Cambridge University, Lent Term

Other Committees

• NASA: Solar System Exploration Subcommittee, 2003-.
• NASA: Planetary Protection Committee, 2004 -

Editorial Service

• Member, Board of Reviewing Editors, Science, Oct. 2003-
• Member, Faculty of Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of 1000, (www.facultyof1000.com), 2003-
• Member of Editorial Board, Geobiology, 2003-
• Member of Editorial Board, Journal of China Univ. Geosciences, 2003-
• Member of Editorial Board, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 2003-
• Member of Editorial Board, American Naturalist, 2002-
• Member of Editorial Board, Evolution & Development, 1999-
• Co-Editor, Paleobiology, 1995-2001

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Publications

Books

Erwin, D. H. 2006 Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago. Princeton University Press. 296 p.
Erwin, D. H. and Wing, S. L. (eds). 2000. Deep Time: Paleobiology’s Perspective. (25th Anniversary Special volume of Paleobiology). Paleontological Society. 371 p.
Jablonski, D.,  Erwin, D. H., and J. Lipps (eds). 1996. Evolutionary Paleobiology: Essays in Honor of James W. Valentine. University of Chicago Press.  484 p.

Erwin, D. H. and Anstey, R. L. (eds). 1995. New Approaches to Speciation in the Fossil Record.  Columbia University Press. 342 p.

Briggs, D.E.G., Erwin, D. H. and Collier, F. 1994. The Fossils of The Burgess Shale. Smithsonian Institution Press. 238p.

Erwin, D. H. 1993.The Great Paleozoic Crisis: Life and Death in the Permian.  Critical Episodes in Earth History Series, Columbia University Press. 327 p.

Recent Papers

Tong, J. N., Zhou, X. G., Erwin, D. H., Zuo, J. X. and Zhao, L. S. 2006. Some fossil fish from the lower Triassic of Majiashan, Chaohu, Anhui Province, China. Journal of Paleontology 80:146-161.

Erwin, D. H. 2006. Date and Rates: Temporal resolution in the deep time stratigraphic record. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 34:369-390.

Davidson, E. H. and Erwin, D. H.  2006. Gene Regulatory networks and the evolution of animal body plans. Science. 311:796-800.

Wagner, P. J. and Erwin, D. H. 2006. Patterns of convergence in general shell form among Paleozoic gastropods. Paleobiology. 32:315-336.

Jackson, J. B. C. and Erwin, D. H. 2006. What can we learn about ecology and evolution from the fossil record.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution.  21:322-328.

Erwin, D. H. 2006. Presentation of the Paleontological Society Medal to Andrew H. Knoll. Journal of the Paleontological Society. 80:801.

Erwin, D. H. 2006. Review of “Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities” by Anthony Hallam. Palaeontological Society Newsletter No. 61, p 112-113.

Ward, PD., Botha, J., Buick, R., Erwin, D.H., Garrison, G., Kirschvink, J. and Smith, R. 2005. Integrated carbon isotope stratigraphy, biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy across four Permian/Triassic boundary sections in the South African Karoo: evidence against a K/T -type impact extinction at the end of the Permian. Science

Flessa, K. W., Jackson, S. T., Aber, J. D., Arthur, M. A., Crane, P. R. Erwin, D. H., Graham, R. W., Jackson, J. B. C., Kidwell, S. M., Maples, C. G., Peterson, C. H. and Reichman, O. J. 2005.  The Geological Record of Biosphere Dynamics. National Research Council.

Erwin, D. H. 2005. Robustness in the history of life? Robust Design. A repertoire of Biological, Ecological and Engineering case studies, SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity. Edited by E. Jen, Oxford University Press. P. 191-205.

Erwin, D. H. 2005. Development, Ecology, and Environment in the Cambrian Metazoan Radiation. Special Issue of the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. 56 (Suppl 1): 24-31.

rwin, D. H. 2005. The Origin of Animal Bodyplans. Form and Function. Essays in Honor of Adolf Seilacher, ed by D. E. G. Briggs, Yale Peabody Museum. pp. 67-80.

Erwin, D. H. 2005. End-Permian mass extinction. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, Nature Publishing Group, London. Www.els.net. Revised version.

Erwin, D. H. 2005. Biotic recoveries after extinction. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, Nature Publishing Group, London. Www.els.net.  Revised version.

Erwin, D. H. 2005.  Searching for the Tree of Life.  Review of “Assembling the Tree of Life” ed. by J. Cracraft and M. J. Donoghue. American Scientist. 93:365-367.

Erwin, D. H. 2005. Seeds of Diversity. Science. 308:1752-1753.

Erwin, D. H. 2005. Presentation of the Charles Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society to Peter J. Wagner, III. Journal of the Paleontological Society.79:828

Erwin, D. H. 2005. A Variable look at Evolution. Review of “The Plausibility of Life” by Marc Kirschner and J.C. Gerhart. Cell 123:1-3.

Erwin, D. H. 2005. Paleontology: Out of the past and into the future.  Geotimes. 50 (12):32-34

Erwin, D. H. 2004. Mass extinctions and radiations. In: Evolution: From Molecules to Ecosystems, ed. by A. Moya and E. Font, Oxford University Press. P 218-228.

Olszewski, T. and Erwin, D. H. 2004. Dynamic response of Permian brachiopod communities to long-term environmental change. Nature. 428:738-741.

Nutzel, A. and Erwin, D. H. 2004. Late Triassic (Norian) Gastropods from the Wallowa Terrane  (Idaho, USA).  Palaontologische Zeitschrift, 78:361-416.

Kues, B. S., Batten, R. L., Erwin, D. H., and Pan, H. Z. 2004. A Late Permian Chinese Gastropod Species, possibly larval, In the Middle Pennsylvanian of New Mexico. Journal of Paleontology 78: 420-423.

Erwin, D. H. 2004. One Very Long Argument. Review of “The Structure of Evolutionary Theory” by Stephen Jay Gould. Biology and Philosophy  19:17-28.

Erwin, D. H. 2004.  The Evolution of form. Review of “Origination of Organismal Form” ed. By G. Muller and S. Newman. BioEssays. 26:459-460.
Erwin, D. H. and Krakauer, D. 2004. Innovations and Inventions. Science (Perspective) 304:1117-1119

Erwin, D. H. The Power of Evolution. 2004. Review of  “Nature. An Economic History” by Geerat Vermeij.  Science

Erwin, D. H. 2004. Review of “Telling Evolutionary Time: Molecular Clocks and the Fossil Record” ed by P. C. J. Donoghue and M. P. Smith. Quarterly Review of Biology. 79:413-414.

Pan Hua-zhang, D. H. Erwin, A. Nützel, and Zhu Xiang-shui. 2003. Jiangxispira, a new gastropod genus from the Early Triassic of China with remarks on the phylogeny of the Heterostropha at the Permian/Triassic boundary. Journal of Paleontology 77:44-49.

Erwin, D. H. 2003. Impact at the Permo-Triassic boundary: a critical evaluation. Astrobiology (Rubey Symposium Special Issue) 3:67-74.

Erwin, D. H. 2003. The Goldilocks Hypothesis.  Review of “Life’s solution” by Simon Conway Morris. Science 302:1682-1683.

Erwin, D. H. and E. H. Davidson.  2002. The last common bilaterian ancestor. Development 129: 3021-3032

Erwin, D. H., Bowring, S. A., and Jin, Y. G. 2002. The End-Permian Mass Extinctions. In: Catastrophic Events and Mass Extinctions: Impacts and Beyond.  C. Koeberl and K. G. MacLeod, eds.  Geological Society of America Special Paper 356: 363-383.

Nützel, A. & Erwin, D. H. 2002. Battenizyga, a new early Triassic gastropod genus with a discussion on the gastropod evolution at the Permian/Triassic boundary. Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 76:21-27.

Pan Hua-Zhang and D. H. Erwin. 2002.  Gastropods from the Permian of south China.  Journal of Paleontology.76, Suppl. To No. 1, Memoir 56. 49 p. 

Solé, R. V., J. M. Montoya and D. H. Erwin.  2002. Recovery after mass extinction: evolutionary assembly in large-scale biosphere dynamics. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 357:697-707. 

Erwin, D. H. 2002. Metazoa. Encyclopedia of Evolution, ed. by M. Pagel. Oxford University Press, Oxford. p. 727-731.

Erwin, D. H.  2002. Review of  “Palaeobiology II”. Newsletter of the Palaeontological Association 49: 76-78.

Erwin, D. H. 2002. Review of “Fossils, Phylogeny and Form: An Analytical Approach” by J. M. Adrain, G. D. Edgecombe and B. S. Lieberman. Quarterly Review of Biology 77:48-49.

Nützel, A., Pan, H. Z.  & Erwin, D. H. 2001. New taxa and some taxonomic changes of a latest Permian gastropod fauna from South China.  Documenta naturae 145: 1-10.

Erwin, D. H. 2001. Lessons from the past: Biotic Recoveries from Mass Extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 98:5399‑5403.

Erwin, D. H. 2001. Metazoan origins and early evolution. Palaeobiology II, ed. by D. E. G. Briggs, and P. R. Crowther.  Blackwell Science, Oxford. p. 25-31.

Kidder, D. L., and Erwin, D. H. 2001. Secular distribution of biogenic silica through the Phanerozoic: comparison of silica-replaced fossils and bedded chert at the series level.  Journal of Geology. 109:509-522.

Nützel, A. & Erwin, D. H. 2001. New Late Triassic Gastropods from the Wallowa Terrane (Idaho) and their biogeographic significance. Facies 45: 87-92.

Tong Jinnan and D. H. Erwin. 2001.  Triassic gastropods of South Qinling Mountains, Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, No. 92, 47 p.

Erwin, D. H. 2001. Mass Extinctions, notable examples of. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Vol. 4, p. 111-122. Academic Press, New York

Erwin, D. H. 2001. Paleontology in Museums and Institutes. Fossils and the Future: Paleontology in the 21st Century. ed. by R. H. Lane, F. F. Steininger, R. L. Kaesler, W. Ziegler and J. Lipps, Senkenberg-Buch Nr 74, pp. 103-108.

Erwin, D. H. 2000. Macroevolution is more than repeated rounds of microevolution. Evolution & Development 2:78-84.

Nützel, A., Erwin, D. H. and Mapes, R. H. 2000. Identity and phylogeny of the late Paleozoic Subulitoidea (Gastropoda).   Journal of Paleontology 74: 575-598.

Jin, Y. G., Y. Wang, W. Wang, Q. H. Shang, C. Q. Cao, and D. H. Erwin. 2000. Pattern of Marine mass extinction near the Permian-Triassic boundary in South China. Science 289:432-436.

Erwin, D.H. and Kidder, D.L. 2000. Depositional controls on selective silicification of Permian Fossils, southwestern United States.  Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences 32:407-415.

Erwin, D. H. 2000. Life’s Downs and ups. Nature (News and Views) 404: 129-130.