Professional Education


  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Georgia (2019)
  • Master of Science, California State University, Fullerton (2012)
  • Bachelor of Science, California State University, Fullerton (2009)

Stanford Advisors


Current Research and Scholarly Interests


My research at Stanford focuses on the evolution of body size of marine animals throughout the fossil record. Specifically, I am using body size as a predictor for marine animal extinction and origination throughout the last 500 million years. I am also working on body size evolution during intervals of rapid diversification of marine invertebrates during the early Paleozoic.

My overall research interests broadly focus on stratigraphic paleobiology. In particular, I seek to understand the various environmental and biotic factors driving macroevolutionary patterns of marine invertebrates in the fossil record within a sequence stratigraphic context. I am also interested in the variation and reconciliation of local and regional expressions of global macroevolutionary patterns and perturbations, such as mass extinctions.

All Publications


  • History of Native American land and natural resource policy in the United States: impacts on the field of paleontology PALEOBIOLOGY Hensel, H. L., Olson, H. C., Monarrez, P. M., Bradley, L., Keane, C., Carslon, S. J. 2023: 1–13

    View details for DOI 10.1017/pab.2022.41

  • Breathless through Time: Oxygen and Animals across Earth's History BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN Sperling, E. A., Boag, T. H., Duncan, M. I., Endriga, C. R., Marquez, J., Mills, D. B., Monarrez, P. M., Sclafani, J. A., Stockey, R. G., Payne, J. L. 2022

    View details for DOI 10.1086/721754

    View details for Web of Science ID 000864473500001

  • Our past creates our present: a brief overview of racism and colonialism in Western paleontology PALEOBIOLOGY Monarrez, P. M., Zimmt, J. B., Clement, A. M., Gearty, W., Jacisin III, J. J., Jenkins, K. M., Kusnerik, K. M., Poust, A. W., Robson, S. V., Sclafani, J. A., Stilson, K. T., Tennakoon, S. D., Milagros Thompson, C. 2022; 48 (2): 173–185

    View details for DOI 10.1017/pab.2021.28

  • Ecological and evolutionary responses of terrestrial arthropods to Middle–Late Pennsylvanian environmental change GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON, SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS Donovan, M. P., Schatchat, S. R., Monarrez, P. M. 2022; 535: 1–42

    View details for DOI 10.1144/SP535-2022-209

  • Mass extinctions alter extinction and origination dynamics with respect to body size PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B Monarrez, P. M., Heim, N. A., Payne, J. L. 2021; 288: 1–8

    View details for DOI 10.1098/rspb.2021.1681

  • The interaction of recovery and environmental conditions: An analysis of the outer shelf edge of western North America during the early Triassic PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY Woods, A. D., Alms, P. D., Monarrez, P. M., Mata, S. 2019; 513: 52–64
  • Regional and environmental variation in escalatory ecological trends during the Jurassic: a western Tethys hotspot for escalation? PALEOBIOLOGY Monarrez, P. M., Aberhan, M., Holland, S. M. 2017; 43 (4): 569–86
  • Patterns of fossil distributions within their environmental context from the Middle Triassic in South Canyon, Central Nevada, USA JOURNAL OF PALAEOGEOGRAPHY-ENGLISH Monarrez, P. M., Bonuso, N. 2014; 3 (1): 74–89
  • A Holocene record of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)-related hydrologic variability in Southern California (Lake Elsinore, CA) JOURNAL OF PALEOLIMNOLOGY Kirby, M. E., Lund, S. P., Patterson, W. P., Anderson, M. A., Bird, B. W., Ivanovici, L., Monarrez, P., Nielsen, S. 2010; 44 (3): 819–39