Rasnitsyn, Alexander Pavlovich

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya Str. 123,

117868 Moscow, Russia, and Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD,

UK (rasna@online.ru).

Rasnitsyn was born Sept. 24, 1936 in Moscow, Russia. He entered Moscow State University in 1955, from which he graduated in 1960, with honours and with a master degree from the Department of Entomology (Prof. Eugeny S. Smirnov, Chairman). The same year he entered the Paleontological Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now the Russian Academy of Sciences). He worked in the Arthropod Laboratory under Prof. Boris B. Rohdendorf, first as a technician, then as a junior and senior research worker, and finally as Chief of the Laboratory (since 1979) and Principal Researcher (since 1996). My Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees were granted from the Institute in 1967 and 1978, respectively. He became a full professor in 1991 (for raising 5 PhD students). He has published 243 papers including 4 books and edited 8 collaborative books, including History of Insects and Introduction into palaeoentomology.

Rasnityns's scientific interests are centered on the palaeontology, phylogeny and taxonomy of the hymenopteran insects and of the insects in general. He has also studied broader biological problems, such as evolutionary theory and the principles of phylogenetics, taxonomy, and nomenclature.

During his twenty, mostly palaeontological, field seasons, he has visited many parts of the FSU, including Fergana, Issyk-Kul and other places in Central Asia, Transbaikalia, Taimyr, Okhotsk, Sikhote-Alin, and other remote spots in Siberia and elsewhere in Russia, as well as various fossil sites in Mongolia.

PUBLICATIONS

 * Dlussky, G. M.; Brother, D. J.; Rasnitsyn, A. P. 2004. The first Late Cretaceous ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from southern Africa, with comments on the origin of the Myrmicinae. Insect Systematics & Evolution 35(1): 1-13


 * Dlussky, G. M.; Rasnitsyn, A. P. 1999a. Two new species of aculeate Hymenoptera (Vespida = Hymenoptera) from the Middle Eocene of the United States. Paleontol. Zh. 1999(5 5: 72-75


 * Dlussky, G. M.; Rasnitsyn, A. P. 1999b. Two new species of aculeate Hymenoptera (Vespida = Hymenoptera) from the Middle Eocene of the United States. Paleontol. J. 33: 546-549


 * Dlussky, G. M.; Rasnitsyn, A. P. 2003 [2002]. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Formation Green River and some other Middle Eocene deposits of North America. Russ. Entomol. J. 11(4): 411-436


 * Dlussky, G.M. & Rasnitsyn, A.P. 2007. Paleontologicheskaya letopl’s i etapy evolyutsii murav’ev. Uspekhi Sovremennoi Biologii 127: 118-134.


 * Dlussky, G.M. & Rasnitsyn, A.P. 2009. Ants in the Upper Eocene amber of central and eastern Europe. Paleontological Journal 43: 1024-1042.


 * Rasnitsyn, A. P. 1975. Hymenoptera Apocrita of Mesozoic. Tr. Paleontol. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR 147: 1-134


 * Rasnitsyn, A. P. 1980. Origin and evolution of Hymenoptera. Tr. Paleontol. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR 174: 1-192


 * Rasnitsyn, A.P. 2002. Superorder Vespidea Laicharting, 1781. Order Hymenoptera Linné, 1758 (=Vespida Laicharting, 1781). Pp. 242-254 in: Rasnitsyn, A. P.; Quicke, D. L. J. (eds.) History of insects. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 517 pp.: