Biographical Information
Bob Gaines, a 2007 recipient of the Wig Award for excellence in teaching, offers courses in Earth history, sedimentology, paleontology and climate change. His research focuses on the “Cambrian Explosion” the flowering of complex life on Earth during the Late Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian Periods some 570 – 500 million years ago. Bob works on the Burgess Shale and many other deposits like it that contain an unusually-rich fossil record of this event. He is also interested in microbial-mineral interactions as a link between the geosphere and the biosphere. He studies ancient sedimentary rocks in South China, British Columbia and the Great Basin (USA).
Courses Taught
Geology 152: Global Climate Change
Geology 20DN: Introduction to Geology (Paleontology and the Evolution of Earth's Bioshpere)
Geology 125: Earth History
Geology 183: Sedimentology
Selected Publications
- Vorhies, J.S. ('05) and Gaines, R.R., 2009, Microbial dissolution of clay minerals as a source of iron and silica in marine sediments, Nature Geoscience (article), v. 2, p. 221-225.
- Gaines R.R., Briggs, D.E.G., Zhao, Y.L., 2008, “Burgess Shale-type deposits share a common mode of fossilization”, Geology, v. 36, p.755-758.
- M. Webster, R.R. Gaines, N.C. Hughes, 2008, “Microstratigraphy, trilobite biostratinomy, and depositional environment of the ‘Lower Cambrian’ Ruin Wash Lagerstätte, Pioche Formation, Nevada”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 264, p. 100-122.
- Reinen, L.A., Grosfils, E.B., Gaines, R.R., and Hazlett, R.W., 2006, Integrating Research into a Small Geology Department’s Curriculum, Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, v. 26, n. 3., p. 109-114.
- Gaines, R.R., Kennedy, M.J., Droser, M.L., 2005, A New hypothesis for organic preservation of Burgess Shale taxa in the Middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale, House Range, Utah, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology,v. 220, 193-205.
- Gaines, R.R., and Droser, M.L., 2005, New Approaches to Understanding the Mechanics of Burgess Shale-type Deposits: From the Micron Scale to the Global Picture, The Sedimentary Record, v. 3, n. 2, p. 4-8.
- Gaines, R.R. and Droser, M.L., 2005, The Paleoenvironmental Context of Burgess Shale-Type Biotas in the Three Utah Lagerstätten (USA), Acta Micropaleontologica Sinica, v. 22, p. 40-47.
- Gaines, R.R. and Droser, M.L., 2003, Paleoecology of the familiar trilobite Elrathia kingii: an early exaerobic zone inhabitant. Geology, v. 31, n. 11, p. 941-944.
- Gaines, R.R., and Droser, M.L., 2002, Depositional environments, ichnology, and rare soft-bodied preservation in the Lower Cambrian Latham Shale, East Mojave, in Proterozoic-Cambrian of the Great Basin and Beyond, edited by F.A. Corsetti, SEPM Pacific Section book 93, 153-164.
Submitted
- Gaines, R.R. and Droser, M.L., in review, The paleo-redox setting of Burgess Shale-type deposits, PALAIOS, 43 MS pages.
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