Peter Roopnarine

  • Curator
  • Invertebrate Zoology and Geology
  • PhD
  • My research is focused on the following areas:
  •      Theory of extinction, mass extinctions, and community evolution
  •      Mathematical modelling of paleocommunity perturbative dynamics
  •      Morphometric analysis of morphological integration
  •      Venerid and corbulid bivalve evolution and systematics
  •      Evolutionary ecology of Neogene tropical American marine molluscs
  • Curator, California Academy of Sciences,  2008-present
  • Other current appointments:
  •       - Research Professor, Department of Geosciences, San  Francisco State University
  •       - Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology, San Francisco State University
  •       - Research Associate, University of California Museum of Paleontology,  Berkeley
  • Associate Curator, California Academy of Sciences,  2005-2008
  • Department Chair, California Academy of Sciences,2001-2004
  • Assistant Curator, California Academy of Sciences, 1999-2004
  • Research Associate, University of Arizona, 1997-1999
  • Assistant Professor, Southeast Missouri State University,  1994-1998
  • Lecturer, University of California Davis, 1994

Roopnarine, P. D. 2009. Ecological modeling of paleocommunity food webs. in G. Dietl and K. Flessa, eds., Conservation Paleobiology, The Paleontological Society Papers, 15: ?-?? (accepted)

Bennington, J. B., W. A. DiMichele, C. Badgley, R. K. Bambach, P. M. Barrett, A. K. Behrensmeyer, R. Bobe, R. J. Burnham, E. B. Daeschler, J. van Dam, J. T. Eronen, D. H. Erwin, S. Finnegan, S. M. Holland, G. Hunt, D. Jablonski, S. T. Jackson, B. F. Jacobs, S. M. Kidwell, P. L. Koch, M. J. Kowalewski, C. C. Labandeira, C. V. Looy, S. K. Lyons, P. M. Novack-Gottshall, R. Potts, P. D. Roopnarine, C. A. E. Strömberg, H. Sues, P. J. Wagner, P. Wilf, and S. L. Wing. 2009. Critical Issues of Scale in Paleoecology. Palaios, 24: 1-4.

Roopnarine, P. and R. Roopnarine. 2008. (Book Review) Ivy + Bean Break the Fossil Record - book by Annie Barrows (illustrated by Sophie Blackall). Chronicle Books, 2007. (124 pages) ISBN-13 978 0811862509. Palaeontologia Electronica, 11(3).

Roopnarine, P. D. 2008. Ecological Informatics: Catastrophe Theory. Encyclopedia of Ecology, Elsevier Press. p. 531-536.

Roopnarine, P. D., J. Signorelli, and C. Laumer. 2008. Systematic, biogeographic and microhabitat-based morphometric variation of the bivalve Anomalocardia squamosa (Bivalvia: Veneridae: Chioninae) in Thailand. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 18: 95-102.

Goodwin, D. H., L. C. Anderson, and P. D. Roopnarine. 2008. Evolutionary origins of novel conchologic growth patterns in tropical American corbulid bivalves. Evolution and Development, 10: 642-656.

Vermeij, G. J. and P. D. Roopnarine. 2008. The Coming Arctic Invasion. Science, 321: 780-781.

Roopnarine, P. D., K. D. Angielczyk, S. C. Wang, and R. Hertog. 2007. Trophic network models explain instability of Early Triassic terrestrial communities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 274: 2077-2086.

Roopnarine, P. D., K. D. Angielczyk, and R. Hertog. 2006. Comment on "Statistical independence of escalatory ecological trends in Phanerozoic marine invertebrates". Science, 314: 925d.

Roopnarine, P. D. 2006. Extinction cascades and catastrophe in ancient food webs. Paleobiology, 32: 1-19.

Roopnarine, P. D., M. A. Murphy, and N. Buening. 2005. Microevolutionary dynamics of the Early Devonian conodont Wurmiella from the Great Basin of Nevada. Paleontologia Electronica, 8(2).

Roopnarine, P. D. 2005. The likelihood of stratophenetic-based hypotheses of genealogical succession. Special Papers in Paleontology, 73: 1-15.

Angeilczyk, K. D., P. D. Roopnarine, and S. C. Wang. 2005. Modeling the role of primary productivity disruption in end-Permian extinctions, Karoo Basin, South Africa. The Nonmarine Permian, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 30: 16-23.

Anderson, L. C. and P. D. Roopnarine. 2005. Role of constraint and selection in the morphologic evolution of Caryocorbula (Mollusca: Corbulidae) from the Caribbean Neogene. Paleontologia Electronica, 8(2).

Dettman, D. L., K. W. Flessa, P. D. Roopnarine, B. R. Schöne, and D. H. Goodwin. 2004. The use of oxygen isotope variation in shells of estuarine mollusks as a quantitative record of seasonal and annual Colorado River discharge. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 68(6): 1253-1263.

Tang, C. M. and P. D. Roopnarine. 2003. Evaporites, Water, and Life, Part I - Complex Morphological Variability in Complex Evaporitic Systems: Thermal Spring Snails from the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico. Astrobiology, 3(3): 597-607.

Roopnarine, P. D. 2003. Analysis of Rates of Morphologic Evolution. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 34: 605-632.

Anderson, L. C. and P. D. Roopnarine. 2003. Evolution and Phylogenetic Relationships of Neogene Corbulidae (Bivalvia; Myoidea) of Tropical America. Journal of Paleontology, 77(6): 1086-1102.

Roopnarine, P. D. 2002. (Book Review) Empiricism at all levels - Evolutionary Patterns. Growth, Form, and Tempo in the Fossil Record. edited by Jeremy B.C. Jackson, Scott Lidgard and Frank K. McKinney. The University of Chicago Press, 2001. (xvi + 399 pages) ISBN 0 226 38931 6. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 17(9): 441-442.

Roopnarine, P. D. 2001. The description and classification of evolutionary mode: a computational approach. Paleobiology, 27(3): 446-465.

Roopnarine, P. D. 2001. A History of Diversification, Extinction, and Invasion in Tropical America as Derived From Species-Level Phylogenies of Chionine Genera (Family Veneridae). Journal of Paleontology, 75(3): 644-657

Roopnarine, P. D. and G. J. Vermeij. 2000. One Species Becomes Two: The Case of Chione Cancellata. The Resurrected C. Elevata, and a Phylogenetic Analysis of Chione. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 66: 517-534.

Roopnarine, P. D. and A. Beussink. 1999. Extinction and Naticid Predation of the Bivalve Chione Von Mühlfeld in the Late Neogene of Florida. Paleontologia Electronica, 2.

Roopnarine, P. D., G. Byars, and P. Fitzgerald. 1999. Anagenetic evolution, stratophenetic patterns, and random walk models. Paleobiology, 25(1): 41-57.

Roopnarine, P. D., P. Fitzgerald, G. Byars, and K. Kilb. 1998. Coincident Boron Profiles of Bivalves from the Gulf of California: Implications for the Calculation of Paleosalinities. PALAIOS, 13: 395-400.

Roopnarine, P. D. 1997. Endemism and Extinction of a New Genus of Chionine (Veneridae: Chioninae) Bivalve from the Late Neogene of Venezuela. Journal of Paleontology, 71(6): 1039-1046.

Roopnarine, P. D. 1995. A Re-Evaluation of Evolutionary Stasis between the Bivalve Species Chione erosa and Chione cancellata (Bivalvia: Veneridae). Journal of Paleontology, 69(2): 280-287.

 

Contact

  • Peter Roopnarine
  • Curator
  • California Academy of Sciences
  • 55 Music Concourse Drive
  • San Francisco, CA 94118
  • 415-379-5271 (direct)

Climate Change

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The “Altered State: Climate Change” exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences has come down after three and a half successful years. The exhibit opened with the new Academy in September, 2008 as one of the major public floor exhibits. I was the lead science curator for the exhibit, working alongside other excellent Academy staff ...
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The Wall Street Journal published an “Opinion” on January 27, entitled “No Need to Panic About Global Warming“, with sub-title “There’s no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to ‘decarbonize’ the world’s economy.” The article has 16 signatories, claimed by the editor to be scientists. The piece itself is a whiny, soap opera-type yarn detailing ...
NASA’s GISS has now concluded that year 2011 was the ninth warmest year on record, globally, since the modern meteorological record was started in the 1880’s. This continues a trend of the warmest years on the record accumulating in the most recent decades. I am now personally comfortable recognizing that we are well past the ...