Bruce Runnegar

Bruce Norman Runnegar (born 2 February 1941, Brisbane) is an Australian-born paleontologist and professor at UCLA. His research centers on using the fossil record to determine how, where, and when life originated and evolved. He has published on a wide variety of topis, including the phylogeny of molluscs,^[1] Dickinsonia fossils and oxygen levels,^[2] and molecular clock techniques.^[3]

One of the earliest species of molluscs, Pojetaia runnegari, is named after him.^[4]

Runnegar was director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute from 2003 to 2006.

Honors and Awards

• Recipient of the Mawson Medal of the Australian Academy of Science (1981)
• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1987)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993)
• Fellow of the Geological Society of America (1998)
• Recipient of the Lapworth Medal (2009)
• Recipient of the Paleontological Society Medal (2010)

References

1. Runnegar, B.; Pojeta, J. (1974). "Molluscan Phylogeny: The Paleontological Viewpoint". Science 186 (4161): 311–317. doi:10.1126/science.186.4161.311. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17839855.
2. Runnegar, Bruce (1982). "Oxygen requirements, biology and phylogenetic significance of the late Precambrian worm Dickinsonia, and the evolution of the burrowing habit". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 6 (3): 223–239. doi:10.1080/03115518208565415. ISSN 0311-5518.
3. Runnegar, Bruce (1982). "A molecular-clock date for the origin of the animal phyla". Lethaia 15 (3): 199–205. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1982.tb00645.x. ISSN 0024-1164.
4. Jell, Peter A. (1980). "Earliest known pelecypod on Earth — a new Early Cambrian genus from South Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 4 (3): 233–239. doi:10.1080/03115518008618934. ISSN 0311-5518.

External links

• Profile at NASA's Astrobiology Institute
• Profile at UCLA's Department of Earth and Space Sciences
• Profile at the Encyclopedia of Australian Science