David J. Peterman

Biography

My research involves combining paleontology and biomechanics to reconstruct animals and ecosystems across evolutionary timescales. I engage in field work and specimen-based paleontology, while also using emerging technologies in the lab (i.e., computer modeling, 3D printing, and robotics). My primary research questions are centered around 1) how organisms interact with the physics of their environments, 2) the ecological and evolutionary roles of these functional constraints, and 3) how unique biological experiments can inform current technologies.

While I am interested in the function, diversity, and paleoecology of marine animals more broadly, I largely focus on externally shelled cephalopods (e.g., ammonoids and nautiloids). These animals were ubiquitous and ecologically significant components of marine ecosystems for hundreds of millions of years. They also displayed high morphological disparity and volatile evolutionary dynamics, making them ideal targets for my research questions.

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Biological fluid mechanics and soft robotics, Penn State University (2025)
• Postdoctoral Scholar (NSF-EAR-PF; Award #1952756), Paleontology and functional morphology, The University of Utah (2022)
• Ph.D., Environmental Sciences, Wright State University (2020)
• M.S., Earth and Environmental Sciences (Geophysics), Wright State University (2016)
• B.S., Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wright State University (2014)

Courses Taught

• GLG 111 - The Dynamic Earth
• GLG 204 - Survival on an Evolving Planet

Possible Thesis/Dissertation Topics

1. Using free-swimming ammonoid robots to explore physical tradeoffs between stability, maneuverability, and directional motility
2. Using free-swimming ammonoid robots and computer modeling to explore the hydrodynamic benefits and costs of ornamentation patterns
3. Exploring the role of size and scale-dependence in aquatic locomotion
4. Reconstructing the body size and ontogeny of the giant (~2 meter) ammonoid, Parapuzosia
5. Investigating the functional morphology of complex “fractal” patterns within the shells of ammonoid cephalopods using a 3D-printed osmoregulation system
6. Exploring patterns of covariation and ecophenotypes in the fossil record
7. Modeling the hydrostatics of the extant, deep-sea, ram’s horn squid, Spirula spirula
8. Modeling features in various Paleozoic cephalopod groups that have been historically interpreted as counterweights
9. Exploring the hydrostatics (buoyancy and mass balance) of cephalopods with deciduous shells (i.e., Ascocerida)
10. Origination of novel morphologies in the context of paleo-bioinspiration

Select Publications

Peterman D.J., Hebdon, N., Lusch, M., Byron, M.L., Panah, A., Ritterbush, K.A. 2025. Hydromechanics of ammonoid conch ornamentation: tradeoffs between rocking attenuation and drag reduction. Paleobiology, accepted. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2025.10053

Peterman, D.J., and Byron, M.L. 2024. Encoding spatiotemporal asymmetry in artificial cilia with a ctenophore-inspired soft-robotic platform. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics 9:066002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ad791c

Peterman, D.J., and Ritterbush, K.A. 2022. Stability-maneuverability tradeoffs provided diverse functional opportunities to shelled cephalopods. Integrative Organismal Biology 4(1):1–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obac048

Peterman, D.J., and Ritterbush, K.A. 2022. Resurrecting extinct cephalopods with biomimetic robots to explore hydrodynamic stability, maneuverability, and physical constraints on life habits. Scientific Reports 12:11287. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13006-6

Peterman, D.J., Hebdon, N., and Ritterbush, K. 2022. Twirling torticones: hydrostatics and hydrodynamics of helically-coiled ammonoids. In: Slattery JS, Larson NL, Bingle-Davis M., and Bingle-Davis M., eds. Insights into the Cretaceous: Building on the Legacy of William A. Cobban (1916-2015), American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Wyoming Geological Association Special Volume, forthcoming.

Peterman, D.J., and Ritterbush, K.A. 2021. Vertical escape tactics and movement potential of orthoconic cephalopods. PeerJ 9:e11797. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11797

Peterman, D.J., Ritterbush, K.A., Ciampaglio, C.N., Johnson, E.H., Inoue, S., Mikami, T., and Linn, T.J. 2021. Buoyancy control in ammonoid cephalopods refined by complex internal shell architecture Scientific Reports 11: 8055. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87379-5

Hoffmann, R., Slattery, J., Kruta, I., Linzmeier, B.J., Lemanis, R.E., Mironenko, A., Goolaerts, S., De Baets, K., Peterman, D.J., and Klug, C. 2021. Recent advances in heteromorph ammonoid palaeobiology. Biological Reviews 96: 576–610. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12669

Peterman, D.J., Mikami, T., and Inoue, S. 2020. The balancing act of Nipponites mirabilis (Nostoceratidae, Ammonoidea): managing hydrostatics throughout a complex ontogeny. PLoS ONE 15(8): e0235180. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235180

Peterman, D.J., Shell, R.C., Ciampaglio, C.N., and Yacobucci, M.M. 2020. Stable hooks: biomechanics of heteromorph ammonoids with U-shaped body chambers. Journal of Molluscan Studies 86(4): 267–279. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyaa018

Peterman, D.J., Hebdon, N., Ciampaglio, C.N., Yacobucci, M.M., Landman, N.H., and Linn, T. 2020. Syn vivo hydrostatic and hydrodynamic properties of scaphitid ammonoids from the U.S. Western Interior. Geobios 60:79-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2020.04.004

Peterman, D.J., Yacobucci, M.M., Larson, N.L., Ciampaglio, C.N., and Linn, T. 2020. A method to the madness: ontogenetic changes in the hydrostatic properties of Didymoceras (Nostoceratidae, Ammonoidea). Paleobiology 46(2):237-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pab.2020.14

Peterman, D.J., Ciampaglio. C., Shell, R.C., and Yacobucci, M.M. 2019. Mode of life and hydrostatic stability of orthoconic ectocochleate cephalopods: hydrodynamic analyses of restoring moments from 3D-printed, neutrally buoyant models of a baculite. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 64(3):441-460. https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00595.2019

Peterman, D.J., Barton, C.C., and Yacobucci, M.M. 2019. The hydrostatics of Paleozoic ectocochleate cephalopods (Nautiloidea and Endoceratoidea) with implications for modes of life and early colonization of the pelagic zone. Palaeontologia Electronica 22.2.27A 1-29. https://doi.org/10.26879/884

Peterman, D.J., and Barton, C.C. 2019. Power scaling of ammonitic suture patterns from Cretaceous Ancyloceratina: constraints on septal/sutural complexity. Lethaia 52: 77-90, doi: 10.1111/let.1229.