Roy E. Plotnick
Professor
A.B. Columbia University, 1976
M.S. University of Rochester, 1978
Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1983
Treasurer, Paleontological Society
Paleontological Society Distinguished
Lecturer, 2005-2008.
Participant in the Paleobiology
Database (PBDB) and CHRONOS.
Editorials Editor, Palaeontologia Electronica
General Research Interests: ECLECTIC!
Invertebrate paleobiology; paleoecology; mathematical methods and
models; fossil preservation; paleobiomechanics
Current Research Projects
- Spatial statistics in ecology and stratigraphy, especially tools
for data-model comparisons
- Spatially explicit ecological models
- Fractal and multifractal models of the fossil record.
An article on this work appeared in the Chronicle of
Higher Education, May 11, 2001.
- Theoretical morphology, simulations, and experimental production
of trace fossils
- Common taxa in the fossil record
- A really amazing Pennsylvanian paleokarst deposit . Click here for article in LiveScience.com.
Representative Publications
Arthropod Paleobiology
Plotnick, R. and D. Elliott. 1995. A new eurypterid from the
Devonian of the Canadian Arctic. J. Paleontology 69:399-401.
Plotnick, R. 1999. Llandoverian-Lochkovian eurypterid
communities.
P. 106-131. IN: Boucot, A. and J. Lawson (ed.) Paleocommunities:
A
Case Study from the Silurian and Lower Devonian. Cambridge University
Press
Lofgren, A. S., R. Plotnick, and P. Wagner, 2003. Morphological
diversity of Carboniferous arthropods and insights on disparity
patterns through the Phanerozoic Paleobiology 29(3):350-369
Functional Morphology
Plotnick, R. and Baumiller, T. 1988. The pterygotid telson as a
biological rudder. Lethaia, 21:13-27.
Plotnick, R. and T. Baumiller. 2000. Invention by
evolution: functional
analysis in paleobiology. Pp. 305-323 In: Erwin, D.H. and S. L.
Wing,
eds. Deep Time: Paleobiology’s Perspective. (Supplement to vol. 26(4)
of
Paleobiology). Paleontological Society.
Taphonomy
Plotnick, R., 1986. Taphonomy of a modern shrimp: implications for
the arthropod fossil record. PALAIOS 1:286-293.
Plotnick, R.,
Baumiller, T., and Wetmore, K., 1988. Fossilization
potential of the mud crab Panopeus (Brachyura: Xanthidae) and time
dependence in crustacean taphonomy. Paleogeography,
Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology, 63:27-43.
Behrensmeyer, A. K., F. T. Fürsich, R. A. Gastaldo, S. M.
Kidwell, M. A. Kosnik, M. Kowalewski, R. E. Plotnick, R, R. Rogers, J.
Alroy 2005. Are the most durable
taxa also the most common in the fossil record? Paleobiology
31: 591-606
Trace Fossils and Foraging
Plotnick, R. 2003. Ecological and L-system based
simulations
of trace fossils. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology, 192: 45-58
Honeycutt, C. and Plotnick R. 2005. Mathematical
analysis of Paleodictyon:
a graph
theory approach. Lethaia 38:345-350
Plotnick, R. and K. Koy. 2005. Let
us prey: simulations of grazing traces in the fossil record.
GeoComputation 2005: 8th International Conference on GeoComputation.
Ann Arbor, Michigan -3 August, 2005. pdf
Koy, K. and R.
Plotnick 2007. Theoretical and experimental ichnology of mobile foraging. in .
Miller III, W. Trace Fossils: Concepts, Problems and Prospects Elsevier.
Plotnick, R.
2007. Chemoreception, odor landscapes, and foraging in ancient marine
landscapes. Palaeontologia Electronica, 10, (1); 1A:11p, 1.48MB; http://palaeo-electronica.org/2007_1/marine/marine.pdf
Koy, K. and R. Plotnick (in press) Effect of the odorant of the
predatory flatworm Dugesia gonocephala on the foraging behavior of
Caenorhabditis elegans. Journal of Nematology.
Fractals and Numerical Methods
Plotnick, R. 1986. A fractal model for the distribution of
stratigraphic hiatuses. J. Geol. 94:885-890
Plotnick, R., 1989. Application of bootstrap methods to reduced
major axis line fitting. Systematic Zoology, 38:144-153.
Plotnick, R. and Prestegaard, K.L. 1993. Fractal analysis of
geologic time series. p. 207-224 IN Lam, N. and DeCola, L. eds.
Fractals in Geography.
Plotnick, R., R . Gardner, W. Hargrove, M.
Perlmutter, and K.
Prestegaard. 1996. Lacunarity analysis: a general technique for the
analysis of spatial patterns. Physical Review E, 53:5461-5468.
Jiang, J. and R. Plotnick. 1998. Fractal analysis of the
coastlines of the United States. Mathematical Geology, 30:
535-546.
Macroevolution
Plotnick, R. and M. McKinney. 1993. Ecosystem organization and
extinction dynamics. PALAIOS, 8:202-212.
Plotnick, R. 1996. The ecological play and the geological theater
. PALAIOS, 11:207-208.
Aaronson, R. and R. Plotnick. 1998. Coordinated stasis and
community integration: a scale-independent interpretation of
macroevolutionary dynamics. P. 430-450 IN McKinney, M. &
J. Drake (ed.). Biodiversity Dynamics . Columbia.
Plotnick. R. and J.J. Sepkoski, Jr. 2001. A multifractal model
for originations and extinctions
. Paleobiology, 27:126-139.
Plotnick, R. and P. Wagner, 2006. Round
up the usual suspects: common genera in the fossil record and the
nature of wastebasket taxa. Paleobiology 32(1):126-146.
Landscape Ecology
Plotnick, R. and R. Gardner. 1993. Lattices and landscapes. pp.
129-162 IN Gardner, R., ed. Some Mathematical Questions in Biology:
Predicting Spatial Effects in Ecological Systems. American Mathematical
Society.
Plotnick, R., G. Gardner, and R. V. O'Neill 1993. Lacunarity
indices as measures of landscape texture. Landscape Ecology,
8:201-211.
Plotnick, R. and R. Gardner. 2002. A general model for
simulating the effects of landscape heterogeneity and disturbance on
community patterns. Ecological Modeling ,147: 171-197
Gardner, R., J Forester and R. Plotnick 2007. Determining pattern-process relationship in heterogeneous landscapes. IN: J. Wu and R. Hobbs, eds.
Key Topics in Landscape Ecology. Cambridge Studies in Landscape Ecology
Quantitative Stratigraphy
Plotnick, R. 1999. Landscape ecology and quantitative
stratigraphy: parallel perspectives on spatial heterogeneity. Pp.271-278
IN: Harbaugh, et al., eds. Numerical Experiments in Stratigraphy, SEPM
Special Publications, no. 62
Perlmutter, M.A. and R.E. Plotnick, 2003. Hemispheric asymmetry of
the stratigraphic record: conceptual proof of unipolar glaciation,
in C.B Cecil and N. T. Edgar (ed.), Climate Controls on Stratigraphy,
SEPM Spec. Pub. 77: 51-68
Zhang, T. and R. Plotnick. Graphic
correlation using genetic algorithms. Mathematical Geology: 38(7): 781-800
Pennsylvanian Paleokarst
Glasspool, I.J., Collinson,M.E. Scott, A.C. Brain, A.T. Plotnick, R.E. and Kenig F. 2009. An ultrastructural investigation of early Middle Pennsylvanian megaspores from the Illinois Basin, USA..Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 156:62–78
Plotnick, R. E., F. Kenig, A. C. Scott, I. J. Glasspool, C. F. Eble, and W.J. Lang (in press) Pennsylvanian paleokarst and fills from northern Illinois, U.S.A.: a window into Late Carboniferous environments and landscapes. PALAIOS
Scott, A. C., F. Kenig, Plotnick, R. E., I. J. Glasspool, W. Chaloner, C. F. Eble (in press) Evidence
of multiple Late Bashkirian to Early Moscovian (Pennsylvanian) fire
events preserved in contemporaneous cave fills. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Science Education
Varelas, M. Plotnick, R. Wink, D., Fan, Q. Harris, Y. 2008. Inquiry and connections in integrated science content courses for elementary education majors. J. College Science Teaching. 37(5):40-47.
Plotnick, R., Varelas, M. and Fan, Q. 2009. Physical World: an integrated earth science, astronomy and physics course for elementary education majors. Journal of Geoscience Education, 57(2):152-158. pdf
- Join the National Association of Geoscience Teachers!-
Opinion (and you're welcome to mine)
I'm Sorry I Missed Your Talk!
Plotnick, R. 2007. SWOTTing at Paleontology. American Paleontologist, 15(4): 21-23. Posted with permission of Paleontological Research Institution.
Plotnick, R. 2008. A somewhat fuzzy snapshot of employment in paleontology in the United States. Palaeontologica Electronica, 11(1)
Book:
Middleton, G., R. Plotnick, and D. Rubin. 1995. Nonlinear Dynamics
and Fractals: New Numerical Techniques for Sedimentary Data. SEPM
Short Course 36.
Software:
Stratistics: A toolkit
for spatial statistics in earth sciences and ecology. An executable copy is available on request.
TraceFossil: An
individual based movement model to simulate foraging in heterogeneous
enviroments. This program is under continuous development, I will
place a current version here.
For more information see Plotnick and Koy
(2005). A user's guide is under development.
CAPS : TraceFossil is based on the CAPS, a spatially explicit neutral model for community development (Plotnick and Gardner 2002), developed in conjunction with Robert Gardner of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences. The current version of CAPS can be downloaded from:
http://www.al.umces.edu/CAPS.htm
Courses:
EaES 101 The Earth's Dynamic Surface
NaturalSciences 101: The Physical World
EaES 360 Introduction to Paleontology
EaES 466 Principles of Paleontology
EaES 480 Statistical Methods in the Earth and Environmental
Sciences
Other interests
Amateur astronomy; Children's literature, including a history of The Little Engine
that Could ; American Flyer toy trains (just a big kid)
More about this exhibit and me!
Address:
Roy E. Plotnick
Earth and Environmental
Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
845 W. Taylor St.
Chicago,IL 60607
phone: 312-996-2111
Fax: 312-413-2279
Email: plotnick@uic.edu
UIC
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