2026 Peter C. Wainwright: Ecology and Evolution Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Ecology and Evolution	86	608	581	212	199	235	24054

Research.com Recognitions

2015 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1997 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Overview

Peter C. Wainwright is affiliated with the University of California, Davis in the United States. Their research primarily focuses on environmental science and earth and planetary sciences, with particular attention to nature and landscape conservation, paleontology, and ecology.

They have contributed to multiple subfields including ecology, genetics, and the combined area of ecology, evolution, behavior, and systematics. Their main topics of study encompass ichthyology and marine biology, evolution and paleontology studies, fish biology, ecology, and behavior, paleontology and evolutionary biology, genetic diversity and population structure, animal behavior and reproduction, and coral and marine ecosystems studies.

Among the scientist's recent publications are:

Body shape diversification along the benthic-pelagic axis in marine fishes (2020), published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Prolonged morphological expansion of spiny-rayed fishes following the end-Cretaceous (2022), published in Nature Ecology & Evolution
The deep sea is a hot spot of fish body shape evolution (2021), published in Ecology Letters
Identifying direct and indirect associations among traits by merging phylogenetic comparative methods and structural equation models (2023), published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Reef-associated fishes have more maneuverable body shapes at a macroevolutionary scale (2020), published in Coral Reefs

Frequent co-authors with whom they have collaborated include Samantha A. Price, Sarah T. Friedman, Katherine A. Corn, Christopher M. Martinez, and Olivier Larouche.

They have published work repeatedly in venues such as Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Evolution, Integrative Organismal Biology, and bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory).

Peter C. Wainwright has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2015 and was named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1997.

Best Publications

Resolution of ray-finned fish phylogeny and timing of diversification

Thomas J. Near;Ron I. Eytan;Alex Dornburg;Kristen L. Kuhn

1072
Citations
TESTING FOR DIFFERENT RATES OF CONTINUOUS TRAIT EVOLUTION USING LIKELIHOOD

Brian C. O'Meara;Cécile Ané;Michael J. Sanderson;Peter C. Wainwright

753
Citations
Predicting patterns of prey use from morphology of fishes

Peter C. Wainwright;Barton A. Richard

592
Citations
Phylogeny and tempo of diversification in the superradiation of spiny-rayed fishes

Thomas J. Near;Alex Dornburg;Ron I. Eytan;Benjamin P. Keck

570
Citations
Many-to-One Mapping of Form to Function: A General Principle in Organismal Design?

Peter C. Wainwright;Michael E. Alfaro;Daniel I. Bolnick;C. Darrin Hulsey

507
Citations
The history and biogeography of fishes on coral reefs

David R. Bellwood;Peter C. Wainwright

483
Citations
Ecological morphology : integrative organismal biology

R. McN Alexander;Peter C. Wainwright;Stephen M. Reilly

439
Citations
rfishbase: exploring, manipulating and visualizing FishBase data from R.

C. Boettiger;D. T. Lang;P. C. Wainwright

430
Citations
Functional Versus Morphological Diversity in Macroevolution

Peter C. Wainwright

420
Citations
MORPHOLOGY AND ECOLOGY: FUNCTIONAL BASIS OF FEEDING CONSTRAINTS IN CARIBBEAN LABRID FISHES'

Peter C. Wainwright

395
Citations
Functional versatility supports coral reef biodiversity

David Bellwood;P.C. Wainwright;Christopher Fulton;A.S. Hoey

343
Citations
Specimen collection: An essential tool

L. A. Rocha;A. Aleixo;G. Allen;F. Almeda

328
Citations
Ecomorphology: Experimental Functional Anatomy for Ecological Problems

Peter C. Wainwright

327
Citations
HERBIVORE ABUNDANCE AND GRAZING INTENSITY ON A CARIBBEAN CORAL REEF

Sara M. Lewis;Peter C. Wainwright

313
Citations
A Functional morphospace for the skull of labrid fishes: patterns of diversity in a complex biomechanical system

Peter C. Wainwright;David R. Bellwood;Mark W. Westneat;Justin R. Grubich

313
Citations
Ecomorphology of feeding in coral reef fishes

Peter C. Wainwright;David R. Bellwood

302
Citations
Ecomorphology of locomotion in labrid fishes

Peter C. Wainwright;David R. Bellwood;Mark W. Westneat

298
Citations
Morphology predicts suction feeding performance in centrarchid fishes.

Andrew M. Carroll;Peter C. Wainwright;Stephen H. Huskey;David C. Collar

288
Citations
The Evolution of Pharyngognathy: A Phylogenetic and Functional Appraisal of the Pharyngeal Jaw Key Innovation in Labroid Fishes and Beyond

Peter C Wainwright;W Leo Smith;Samantha A Price;Kevin L Tang

281
Citations
Ecological Explanation through Functional Morphology: The Feeding Biology of Sunfishes

Peter C. Wainwright

278
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Thomas J. Near Yale University

David R. Bellwood James Cook University

Michael E. Alfaro University of California, Los Angeles

Daniel I. Bolnick University of Connecticut

Timothy E. Higham University of California, Riverside

Christopher J. Fulton Australian National University

Andrew S. Hoey James Cook University

George V. Lauder Harvard University

Mark W. Westneat University of Chicago

Brant C. Faircloth Louisiana State University

External Links

Personal website of Peter C. Wainwright

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