January 5, 2026 SCGS Meeting and Lecture

Monday, January 5 at 6:00 PM

South Coast Geological Society invites you to attend our first meeting and lecture of the new year! Dr. Pedro Monarrez, Assistant Professor of Paleobiology in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, will present his lecture titled: Alternating Macroevolutionary Regimes: Do Mass Extinctions Change the Rules of Evolution?

Abstract:

Mass extinctions have played a profound role in the evolutionary history of life. A central debate in paleobiology, however, centers on whether mass extinctions represent an intensification of background extinction dynamics or whether they represent a change in macroevolutionary regimes, in which the rules that govern evolution temporarily change. In this talk, Dr. Monarrez will review some of the work on this debate and present recent research using fossil animal body size and geographic range that sheds light on the significance of mass extinctions in the evolutionary history of marine life.

Speaker Information:

Dr. Monarrez is currently an Assistant Professor of Paleobiology in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. He is a first-generation Mexican American originally from Los Angeles, California, where he was born and raised. After being initially interested in marine biology, he decided to pursue geology as a major after watching the movie Dante’s Peak when he was in high school. He attended Cal State Fullerton, where he majored in Geological Sciences. As an undergrad, he developed a passion for marine paleobiology. He decided to pursue that career after participating in an NSF REU at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. After earning his B.S., he stayed at Cal State Fullerton, where he earned a Master’s degree. For the next two years, he split his time between living in Panamá, working for the Florida Museum of Natural History, and working in paleontological resource mitigation in Southern California. He then went on to earn a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Georgia. After completing his Ph.D., he completed a Stanford Earth Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University. After his postdoc, he was the Recruitment, Outreach, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at UCLA before starting at Virginia Tech.

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Thank you to our individual and corporate sponsors whose generous donations help make these events sustainable! If you or your company would like to become a 2026 corporate sponsor, please contact scgs.mgmt@gmail.com.

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Meeting Information:

Location:

Dave and Busters

20 City Blvd West

Orange, CA

Meeting Cost:

Member: $50

Non-Member: $60

Students: $20

Membership Dues:

As a reminder, annual membership dues expire at the end of each calendar year. 2026 Membership dues can be paid via Eventbrite as a registration add-on: $40

Agenda:

6:00 PM – Check-in and social hour

6:30 PM – Dinner served

7:00 PM – Presentation begins after brief announcements

Registration:

Please register by Friday, January 2. Walk-ins are accepted, but early registration helps ensure enough food is prepared.