Robert R. Gaines

Acting President; Edwin F. and Martha Hahn Professor of Geology
With Pomona Since: 2003
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    In what has been hailed as the world’s most important fossil discovery in decades, Robert Gaines was a member of the team that discovered a stunning new Burgess Shale fossil site in Canada’s Kootenay National Park in 2014.

    His recent research at Burgess Shale sites has also offered a likely solution to one of biology’s greatest riddles, the preservation of soft-tissue fossils from the Cambrian Explosion, the flowering of complex life on Earth during the Late Neoproterozoic and Cambrian Periods some 570 to 500 million years ago. His hypothesis, that a combination of calcium carbonate deposits and lower levels of oxygen and sulfur in the Cambrian seas prevented the degradation of the fossils by microbes, was validated by a startlingly consistent pattern in the geochemical data he collected from around the world. 

    He is also more broadly interested in microbial-mineral interactions as a link between the geosphere and the biosphere. He works on ancient sedimentary rocks in South China, British Columbia and the American Great Basin.

    President Starr is on sabbatical in the spring of 2025 and will return to her presidential role in fall 2025. During this Board of Trustees-approved sabbatical, President Starr will focus on her next book manuscript dealing with the importance of the arts in human life and learning. Robert Gaines, Edwin F. and Martha Hahn Professor of Geology, will serve as acting president during President Starr’s time away from campus.

    Research Interests

    • The "Cambrian Explosion"
    • Burgess Shale and similar deposits
    • Microbial-mineral interactions as a link between the geosphere and the biosphere

    Areas of Expertise

    GEOLOGY

    • Paleontology & Paleoecology of Early Life
    • "The Cambrian Explosion"
    • Burgess Shale-Type Deposits
    • Geomicrobiology
    • Sedimentary Geology
  • Work

    Work

    Hammarlund, E.U., Gaines, R.R., Prokopenko, M.G., Qi, C., Hou, X.G. and Canfield, D.E., 2017, Early Cambrian oxygen minimum zone-like conditions at Chengjiang, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 475, p. 160-168.

    Foster, J.R., and Gaines, R.R., 2016, Taphonomy and Paleoecology of the “Middle” Cambrian (Series 3) Formations in Utah’s West Desert: Recent Finds and New Data, in Comer, J.B., Inkenbrandt, P.C., Krahulec, K.A., and Pinnell, M.L., eds, Resources and Geology of Utah’s West Desert: Utah Geological Association Publication 45, p. 291-336.

    Gaines, R.R. and Vorhies, J.S.(’05), 2016, Growth mechanisms and geochemistry of carbonate concretions from the Cambrian Wheeler Formation (Utah, USA), Sedimentology, v. 63, p. 662-698, doi: 10.1111/sed.12234.

    Murphy, B.S.’(13), Gaines, R.R., and Lackey, J.S., 2016, Co-evolution of volcanic and lacustrine systems in Pleistocene Long Valley Caldera, California, U.S.A., Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 86, p. 1129-1146.

    Nowak, H., Servais, T., Pittet, B., Vaucher, R., Akodad, M., Gaines, R.R., and Vandenbroucke, T.R.A., 2016, Palynomorphs of the Fezouata Formation (Lower Ordovician, Morocco): age and environmental constraints of the Fezouata Biota. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.03.007.

    Aria, C., Caron, J.B., and Gaines, R.R., 2015, A large leanchoiliid from the Burgess Shale and the influence of inapplicable states on stem arthropod phylogeny, Palaeontology, v. 58, p. 629-660, doi: 10.1111/pala.12161. 

    Van Roy, P., Briggs, D.E.G., and Gaines, R.R., 2015, The Fezouata fossils of Morocco – an extraordinary record of marine life in the early Ordovician, Journal of the Geological Society, doi:10.1144/jgs2015-017.

    Caron, J.B., Gaines, R.R., Aria, C., Mángano, M.G., and Streng. M., 2014, A new phyllopod bed-like assemblage from the Burgess Shale of the Canadian Rockies, Nature Communications, v. 5: 3210.

    Gaines, R.R., 2014, Burgess Shale-type Preservation and its Distribution in Space and Time. In: Reading and Writing of the Fossil Record: Preservational Pathways to Exceptional Fossilization. The Paleontological Society Papers, Volume 20, M. Laflamme, J.D. Schiffbauer, and S.A. F. Darroch, eds., p. 123-146.

    O’Brien, L.J., Caron, J.B., and Gaines, R.R., 2014, Taphonomy and Depositional Setting of the Burgess Shale Tulip Beds, Mount Stephen, British Columbia, Palaios, v. 29, p. 309-324. Farrell, U.C., Briggs, D.E.G., Hammarlund, E.U., Sperling, E.A., and Gaines, R.R., 2013, Paleoredox and pyritization of soft-bodied fossils in the Ordovician Frankfort Shale of New
    York, American Journal of Science, v. 313, p. 452-489.

    Torres, M.A. (’10) and Gaines, R.R., 2013, Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic interpretations of the late Paleocene Goler Formation, Southern California, U.S.A., based on paleosol geochemistry, Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 83, p. 591-605.

    With S.E. Peters, "Formation of the 'Great Unconformity' as a trigger for the Cambrian explosion," Nature, v. 484, p. 363-366, 2012

    With E.U. Hammarlund, X. Hou, C. Qi, S.E. Gabbott, Y. Zhao, J. Peng and D.E. Canfield; "Mechanism for Burgess Shale-type Preservation"; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 109, p. 5180-5184, 2012

    With Briggs, D.E.G., Van Roy, P., and Orr, P.J., 2012, "Preservation of giant Anomalocaridids in silica-chlorite concretions from the early Ordovician of Morocco," Palaios, v. 127, p. 317-325.

    With M.L. Droser, P.J. Orr, D. Garson, E.U. Hammarlund, C. Qi, and D.E. Canfield, "Burgess Shale-type biotas were not entirely burrowed away," Geology, v. 40, p. 283-286, 2012

    With D.E. Garson, M.L. Droser, W.D. Liddell, and A. Sappenfield, "Dynamic paleoredox and exceptional preservation in the Cambrian Spence Shale of Utah," Lethaia, v. 40, p. 164-177, 2012

    "New Burgess Shale-type Locality in the “thin” Stephen Formation, Kootenay National Park, British Columbia: Stratigraphic and Paleoenvironmental Setting," Palaeontographica Canadiana, v. 31, p. 73-88, 2011

    With J.A. Mering (’10), Y.L. Zhao, and J. Peng, "Stratigraphic and Microfacies Analysis of the Kaili Formation, a Candidate GSSP for the Cambrian Series 2 – Series 3 Boundary," Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 311, p. 171-183, 2011

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D.
    University of California, Riverside

    Master of Science
    University of Cincinnati

    Bachelor of Science
    College of William and Mary

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Climate Change
    • Earth History
    • Independent Study: Geology
    • Lab, Earth History
    • Lab, Sedimentology
    • Paleontology & the Evolution of Earth's Biosphere
    • Sedimentology
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Pomona College, Wig Distinguished Professorship Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2007 & 2013

    National Science Foundation, Sedimentary Geology & Paleobiology Award EAR-0518732: "RUI: An Integrative Paleontological And Paleoenvironmental Study Of The Middle Cambrian Spence, Wheeler, And Marjum Soft-Bodied Faunas," 2005-07

    NSF Major Research Instrumentation Grant DMR-0618417 "MRI: Acquisition of EDS Microanalysis and Nanometer Pattern Generation Systems for Electron Microscopy Facilities at a Primarily Undergraduate Consortium"; 2006-07

    NSF Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Grant (CCLI) DUE-0942447 Title “XRF as a Tool for Curricular Enhancement in Earth Systems and Environmental Chemistry”; 2010-2012 $200,000)

    Fellowships & Grants

    NSF Collaborative Research Grant EAR-1554897 (2016-2019)
    Title: “A Remarkable New Fossil Assemblage from the Burgess Shale at Marble Canyon,
    Kootenay National Park”
    Principal Investigator
    $148,293

    National Geographic Foundation Research and Exploration Grant 9932-16 (2016-2017)
    Title: “Exploring new frontiers of the Cambrian explosion: the Emu Bay Shale Drilling Project
    and new insights from a unique early Cambrian fossil deposit”
    Principal Investigator
    $20,000

    Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (2016-2018)
    Title: “The Tempo and Mode of Environmental Change: A Stable-Isotope Facility for a Small
    Liberal Arts Consortium”
    Principal Investigator
    $922,816

    Federal Research Contract
    Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming (2015-2017)
    National Park Service Research Contract
    Title: “Fossil Horizons”
    Principal Investigator
    $17,999

    NSF Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Research Grant EAR-1046233 (2011-2015)
    Title: “The Chengjiang Scientific Drilling Project and an integrated model for understanding
    Burgess Shale-type Deposits”
    Principal Investigator
    $184,036

    NSF Major Research Instrumentation Grant DMR-1126080 (2011-2013)
    Title: "MRI: Acquisition of a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope for a Primarily
    Undergraduate Consortium"
    Senior Personnel
    $546,273

    NSF Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Grant (CCLI) DUE-0942447 (2010-2012)
    Title: “XRF as a Tool for Curricular Enhancement in Earth Systems and Environmental
    Chemistry”
    Co-Principal Investigator
    $200,000

    NSF Major Research Instrumentation Grant DMR-0618417 (2006-2008)
    Title: "MRI: Acquisition of EDS Microanalysis and Nanometer Pattern Generation Systems for
    Electron Microscopy Facilities at a Primarily Undergraduate Consortium"
    Principal Investigator
    $159,886

    NSF Collaborative Research Grant EAR-0518732 (2005-2007)
    Title: “An Integrative Paleontological and Paleoenvironmental Study of the Middle Cambrian
    Spence, Wheeler, and Marjum Soft-Bodied Faunas”
    Principal Investigator
    $50,256