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 Peter Wagner, PhD
Geology Department
Associate Curator, Fossil Invertebrates
Snails (gastropods) are one of the most successful and diverse animal groups. Because of their hard shells, they have left a rich fossil record from the late Cambrian (about 500 million years ago) to the present.
Paleontologist Peter Wagner studies shells of gastropods and related mollusks from the Cambrian through the Devonian (about 350 million years ago) in order to test ideas about what caused different long-term evolutionary patterns. For example, he studies the long-term diversification and/or elimination of some shell types, how rapidly new shell forms and/or new species appear, and who survives and dies over mass extinction events.
Wagner’s studies have shown that snail shells changed more frequently and more drastically early in gastropod history. They also have demonstrated that particular types of shells evolved far more frequently than expected given the range of possible shell types. In addition, they have shown that many now extinct shell types once were not only common but also evolving frequently.
Wagner’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation and has included fieldwork in the Australian outback as well as visits to other museums across the globe.
Dr. Peter Wagner Interview
“A wide range of hypotheses, ranging from issues as big as ‘what caused the explosion of different animal types during the Cambrian?’ to as basic as ‘how do animals evolve into distinctly different species?’ all make testable predictions about the gastropod fossil record.”
“In many cases, gastropods are much better for testing basic hypotheses than are the animals or plants that originally inspired the hypotheses, because we know much more about snails as animals and because gastropods have such a denser fossil record than other species do.”
“My work involves combining the data that I collect with computer programs I write in order to separate the hypotheses that might work from those that clearly do not.”
 To learn more about why it’s the little fossils that tell the big story of Earth’s history, take a look at the Dr. Scott Lidgard and Dr. Peter Wagner Video created for the Evolving Planet exhibition.
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