Pedro Monarrez

My research asks a fundamental question: how have environments shaped the history of life? As a stratigraphic paleobiologist, I study mass extinction events to understand how environmental change drives the collapse and recovery of marine ecosystems over geologic time. Using stratigraphic frameworks to assess the rock record, I work to disentangle biological signals from the structure of preservation itself, ensuring that macroevolutionary patterns are interpreted within their proper environmental and depositional context. My work combines the fossil record with quantitative approaches from ecology, evolutionary biology, and Earth history to investigate which organisms survive mass extinctions, which go extinct, and perhaps most importantly, which originate and diversify in their aftermath. I am also committed to broadening community participation in paleontology and the geosciences through outreach and mentorship.

Research areas:
Stratigraphic paleobiology
Invertebrate paleontology
Sequence stratigraphy
Mass extinctions
Macroevolution

Education:
Ph.D., Geology, University of Georgia, 2019
M.S., Geological Sciences, California State University, Fullerton, 2012
B.S., Geological Sciences, California State University, Fullerton, 2009

Links:
Lab website: www.vtstratpaleo.org
VT Paleobiology and Geobiology: www.paleo.geos.vt.edu