Peter Wilf

IEE Faculty Member
Titles and Affiliations
Professor, Geosciences

Research Summary

Research interests include paleobotany, paleobiology and paleoclimatology. Research uses fossil plants to investigate ancient ecosystems, past environmental change, and the evolution and extinction of plants and plant-insect associations to emphasize questions with relevance for modern climate change, biodiversity, biogeography and ecological processes. Three specific areas of research include the end-Cretaceous (K-T) mass extinction and Eocene global warming, origins of South American plant diversity and the evolution of plant-insect associations.

In the News

Research Keywords

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Projects

Recent Publications

Fossil insect-feeding traces indicate unrecognized evolutionary history and biodiversity on Australia's iconic Eucalyptus

Giraldo, L. A., Wilf, P., Donovan, M. P., Kooyman, R. M. & Gandolfo, M. A., Feb 2025, In: New Phytologist. 245, 4, p. 1762-1773 12 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Paleobotany reframes the fiery debate on Australia's rainforest edges

Wilf, P. & Kooyman, R. M., Feb 2025, In: New Phytologist. 245, 4, p. 1355-1365 11 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Lauraceous fossil woods from the early Eocene of Laguna del Hunco, Argentine Patagonia

Pujana, R. R., Jud, N. A., Wilf, P. & Gandolfo, M. A., 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Alcheringa.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Reassessing floral diversity at Río Pichileufú, earliest middle Eocene of Río Negro, Argentina

Rossetto-Harris, G. & Wilf, P., 2024, In: Palaeontologia Electronica. 27, 3, a49.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Early Eocene infructescences from Argentine Patagonia expand the biogeography of Malvoideae

Siegert, C., Gandolfo, M. A. & Wilf, P., Sep 2024, In: American journal of botany. 111, 9, e16384.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

GIANT SEEDS OF AN EXTANT AUSTRALASIAN LEGUME LINEAGE DISCOVERED IN EOCENE BORNEO (SOUTH KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA)

Spagnuolo, E. J., Wilf, P., Zonneveld, J. P., Shaw, D., Aswan, Rizal, Y., Zaim, Y., Bloch, J. I. & Ciochon, R. L., Sep 2024, In: International journal of plant sciences. 185, 5, p. 482-502 21 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Putative Celtis Leaves from Eocene Patagonia are Allied with Asian Anacardiaceae

Wilf, P., González, C. C., Gandolfo, M. A. & Zamaloa, M. C., Apr 30 2024, In: Ameghiniana. 61, 2, p. 73-92 20 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

AVIAN FORAGING ON AN INTERTIDAL MUDFLAT SUCCESSION IN THE EOCENE TANJUNG FORMATION, ASEM ASEM BASIN, SOUTH KALIMANTAN, INDONESIAN BORNEO

Zonneveld, J. P., Zaim, Y., Rizal, Y., Aswan, A., Ciochon, R. L., Smith, T., Head, J., Wilf, P. & Bloch, J. I., Mar 2024, In: Palaios. 39, 3, p. 67-96 30 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

A new fossil Acmopyle with accessory transfusion tissue and potential reproductive buds: Direct evidence for ever-wet rainforests in Eocene Patagonia

Andruchow-Colombo, A., Rossetto-Harris, G., Brodribb, T. J., Gandolfo, M. A. & Wilf, P., Aug 2023, In: American journal of botany. 110, 8, e16221.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Fossil berries reveal global radiation of the nightshade family by the early Cenozoic

Deanna, R., Martínez, C., Manchester, S., Wilf, P., Campos, A., Knapp, S., Chiarini, F. E., Barboza, G. E., Bernardello, G., Sauquet, H., Dean, E., Orejuela, A. & Smith, S. D., Jun 2023, In: New Phytologist. 238, 6, p. 2685-2697 13 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Insect herbivore and fungal communities on Agathis (Araucariaceae) from the latest Cretaceous to Recent

Donovan, M. P., Wilf, P., Iglesias, A., Cúneo, N. R. & Labandeira, C. C., 2023, In: PhytoKeys. 226, p. 109-158 50 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Do Southeast Asia's paleo-Antarctic trees cool the planet?

Wilf, P. & Kooyman, R. M., Sep 2023, In: New Phytologist. 239, 5, p. 1556-1566 11 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

The first Gondwanan Euphorbiaceae fossils reset the biogeographic history of the Macaranga-Mallotus clade

Wilf, P., Iglesias, A. & Gandolfo, M. A., May 2023, In: American journal of botany. 110, 5, e16169.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

The Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution and the origins of modern biodiversity

Benton, M. J., Wilf, P. & Sauquet, H., Mar 2022, In: New Phytologist. 233, 5, p. 2017-2035 19 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Gondwanan survivor lineages and the high-risk biogeography of Anthropocene Southeast Asia

Kooyman, R. M., Ivory, S. J., Benfield, A. J. & Wilf, P., Jul 2022, In: Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 60, 4, p. 715-727 13 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review