Email: dmerwin@berkeley.edu

Phone: (510) 642-3921

Web page: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/people/dme/dme.html

Research interests: Diane's current research focuses on western North American Tertiary plants and their evolution and changing distributions. She notes, "Plant communities are always changing. The fossil record gives us that unique window into how plants that lived millions of years ago have changed in form, distribution and associations, and then ask why the change."

Collections: Diane also manages the paleobotany collections, and so by combining research with curation hopes to improve their scientific value. "Scientists worldwide use our paleobotany collection data. However, they are not always able to verify the identifications so their results may be flawed. I'm hoping through published revisions to provide a more accurate fossil plant record, while updating the UCMP paleobotany collection."

Why paleobotany? "I took a plant morphology course in college that was taught from a paleobotanical perspective and was hooked immediately. I always had strong interests in botany, field biology, geology and geologic time, so I was thrilled to find that paleobotany combined them all."

Burge, D.O., D.M. Erwin, M.B. Islam, J. Kellermann, S.W. Kembel, D.H. Wilken, P.S. Manos. 2011. Diversification of Ceanothus (Rhamnaceae) in the California Floristic Province. International Journal of Plant Sciences. 172:1137-1164.  

Bartley, R.H., S.E. Bartley, D.J. Springer, and D.M. Erwin. New observations on the Middle Fork Eel River coal-bearing beds, Mendocino County, California, USA. International Journal of Coal Geology. 83(2-3):204-228.

Hren, M.T., M. Pagani, D.M. Erwin, and M. Brandon. 2010. Biomarker reconstruction of the early Eocene paleotopography and paleoclimate of the northern Sierra Nevada. Geology. 38:7-10.

Erwin, D.M. 2008. Late Eocene pond weeds from the Bull Run Basin, NV, USA. Botany 2008, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, University of British Columbia, Canada, July 26-30, Paper No. 652.  

Hren, M.T., M. Pagani, M. Brandon, and D.M. Erwin. 2008. Paleoelevation reconstruction of the Sierra Nevada from compound-specific stable isotopes of fossil leaves. Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, Paper No. 126-6 (on CD-ROM).  

Simpson, A.G. and D.M. Erwin. 2008. A Western Interior origin for the chaparral shrub genus Arctostaphylos (Ericaceae) in California? Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, Paper No. 277-10 (on CD-ROM.)  

Erwin, D.M. and H.E. Schorn. 2007. Tufa-encrusted plants from Late Pleistocene Searles Lake, California, USA. Botany and Plant Biology Joint Congress, Chicago, IL, July 7-12, Poster Abstracts volume p. 280.  

Erwin, D.M. and K.N. Schick. 2007. New Miocene oak galls (Cynipini) and their bearing on the history of cynipid wasps in western North America. Journal of Paleontology 81(3):568-580.  

Schorn, H.E., J.A. Myers, and D.M. Erwin. 2007. Navigating the Neogene: An updated chronology of Neogene paleofloras from the western United States. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 258: 139-146.

Erwin, D.M. and H.E. Schorn. 2006. Tufa encrusted trees from Late Pleistocene Searles Lake, California. Pp. 1-28 in R.L. Kaldenberg (ed.), A festschrift honoring the contributions of California archaeologist Jay von Werlhof. Maturango Museum Publication No. 20, Maturango Press, Ridgecrest, CA.

Erwin, D.M., and H.E. Schorn. 2006. Pinus baileyi (section Pinus) from the Paleogene of Idaho, USA. American Journal of Botany 93(2):197-205.  

Erwin, D.M., H.E. Schorn, J. Myers, A. Thompson, L. Kouwenberg, S.A. Stuart, and L. Fisk. 2006. Flora of the northern Sierra Nevada. Field trip guidebook. Botany 2006, Chico, California. 44 pp.

Myers, J., D.M. Erwin, and H.E. Schorn. 2006. Navigating the Neogene: updating the paleobotanical record of the later Cenozoic in the Far West. Advances in Paleobotany — Recognizing the contributions of David L. Dilcher and Jack A. Wolfe, Gainesville, Florida.  

Stuart S.A., and D.M. Erwin. 2006. Fertile sporophytes of Azolla from the early Eocene Wind River flora, Wind River Basin, Wyoming, USA. Botanical Society of America meeting, Chico, California. Abstract #609.  

Erwin, D.M., and H.E. Schorn. 2005. Revision of the conifers from the Eocene Thunder Mountain flora, Idaho, USA. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 137:125-145.

Erwin, D.M., H.E. Schorn, R.C. Smith, L.M. Levy, C.I. Millar, R.D. Westfall, J.C. King, and V.S. Moran. 2005. Nevada's buried treasure: the Lund Petrified Forest. Botanical Society of America meeting, Austin, Texas. Abstract #271.  

Ratcliffe, B.C., D.M. Smith, and D.M. Erwin. 2005. Oryctoantiquus borealis, new genus and species from the Eocene of Oregon, USA, the world's oldest fossil dynastine and largest fossil scarabaeid (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae). The Coleopterists Bulletin 59(1):127-135.  

Erwin, D.M., and C.N. Miller. 2004. A new closed-cone pine from the Miocene of Nevada. Botanical Society of America meeting, Snowbird, Utah. Abstract #367.  

Robinson, D.T, K.R. Aalto, J.A. Barron, D.M. Erwin, and A.S. Jayko. 2001. Marine inundation of a late Miocene forest: stratigraphy and tectonic evolution of the Saint George Formation, Crescent City, California. California Geology, May/June, pp. 10-22.

Schorn, H.E., and D.M. Erwin. 2001. The Tertiary history of North American megafossil conifers: the few, the proud, and oft times neglected. North American Paleontology Convention 2001, Berkeley, California. PaleoBios 21(2, suppl.):114. Abstract.

Erwin, D.M., and H.E. Schorn. 2000. Revision of Lyonothamnus A. Gray (Rosaceae) from the Neogene of western North America. International Journal of Plant Sciences 161(1):179-193.

Schorn, H.E., and D.M. Erwin. 2000. The impression record history and ecological diversification of Pseudotsuga Carriere (Pinaceae) in western North America during the later half of the Cenozoic. Botany 2000, Portland, Oregon. Abstract.