Overview

Allmon is the Director of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca, which is formally affiliated with Cornell and houses all non-botanical fossil specimens previously housed at the University as part of its collection of more than 2 million specimens. Over the past decade, Allmon has led PRI in its ambitious renovation and expansion, including the design and construction of the Museum of the Earth, an 18,000 square foot education and exhibit facility which opened in 2003. In addition to his technical research, he writes and speaks frequently on the history of science, evolution and creationism, natural history museums and collections, and Earth Science education.

Research Focus

Allmon's research focuses on macroevolution and evolutionary paleoecology, especially the environmental and ecological context of evolutionary change, particularly in Cenozoic mollusks, and especially the gastropod family Turritellidae. Most of his work focuses on the influence of paleoceanographic conditions, especially nutrient flux and primary productivity, on patterns of origination and extinction.

Instruction Focus

Macroevolution; Molluscan Systematics; Paleobiology; Paleoecology

Additional Links

• Paleontological Research Institution

Honors, Awards and Appointments

• American Geological Institute Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of the Geosciences - 2004
• Fellow, Geological Society of America - 2000

Selected Publications

• Allmon, W.D., and P.A. Cohen, 2008, Paleoecological significance of turritelline gastropod-dominated limestones from the mid-Cretaceous of Texas and Oklahoma. Cretaceous Research, 29:65-77.
• Allmon, W.D., 2007, Cretaceous marine nutrients, greenhouse carbonates, and the abundance of turritelline gastropods. Journal of Geology, 115(5): 509-524.
• Allmon, W.D., 2005, The importance of museum collections in paleobiology. Paleobiology, 31(1): 1-5.
• Allmon, W.D., 2004, Opening a new natural history museum in twenty-first century America: A case study in historic perspective. In Natural History Institutions: Past, Present, and Future. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, vol. 55, Supplement 1, no. 11, A. Leviton, ed., pp. 245-266.
• Allmon, W.D., 2003, Boundaries, turnover, and the causes of evolutionary change: a perspective from the Cenozoic. In From Greenhouse to Icehouse. The marine Eocene-Oligocene transition. D.Prothero, L. Ivany, E. Nesbitt, eds., Columbia University Press, pp. 511-521.
• Teusch, K.P., D.S. Jones, and W.D. Allmon, 2002, Morphological variation in a turritellid gastropod from the Pleistocene to Recent of Chile: associations with upwelling intensity. Palaios, 17:366-377.
• Allmon, W.D., and R.M. Ross, 2001, Nutrients and evolution in the marine realm. In Evolutionary paleoecology. The ecological context of macroevolutionary change. W.D. Allmon and D.J. Bottjer, eds., Columbia University Press, NY, pp. 105-148.
• Allmon, W.D., 2001, Nutrients, temperature, disturbance, and evolution: a model for the Late Cenozoic marine record of the Western Atlantic. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 166: 9-26.
• Allmon, W.D., P.J.Morris, and M.L.McKinney, 1998, An intermediate disturbance hypothesis of maximal speciation. In Biodiversity dynamics. Turnover of populations, taxa, and communities. M.L. McKinney and J.A. Drake, eds., Columbia University Press, NY, pp. 349-376.
• Allmon, W.D., S.D.Emslie, D.S.Jones and G.S. Morgan, 1996, Late Neogene paleoceanographic change along Florida`s west coast: evidence and mechanisms. Journal of Geology 104:143-162.
• Allmon, W.D., 1996, Evolution and systematics of Cenozoic American Turritellidae (Gastropoda). I. Paleocene and Eocene species related to "Turritella mortoni Conrad" and "Turritella humerosa Conrad" from the U.S.Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains. Palaeontographica Americana, 59, 134 p.
• Allmon, W.D., 1994, Patterns and processes of heterochrony in lower Tertiary turritelline gastropods, U.S.Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains. Journal of Paleontology, 68(1): 80-95.
• Allmon, W.D., 1994, Taxic evolutionary paleoecology and the ecological context of macroevolutionary change. Evolutionary Ecology 8:95-112.
• Allmon, W.D., G.Rosenberg, R.W.Portell, and K.S.Schindler, 1993, Diversity of Atlantic coastal plain mollusks since the Pliocene. Science 260:1626-1628.
• Allmon, W.D., 1992, A causal analysis of stages in allopatric speciation. Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology 8:219-257.
• Allmon, W.D., 1990, A review of the Bullia group (Neogastropoda: Nassariidae), with comments on its evolution, biogeography and phylogeny. Bulletins of American Paleontology 99(335), 179 pp.
• Allmon, W.D., 1988, Ecology of living turritelline gastropods (Prosobranchia, Turritellidae): current knowledge and paleontological implications. Palaios 3:259-284.

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