Richard Aldridge

Richard John Aldridge
Born	1945
Died	4 February 2014
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Southampton
Awards	Pander Medal of the Pander Society 2011 Lapworth Medal of the Palaeontological Association 2012 Coke Medal of the Geological Society of London 2012 Brady Medal of The Micropalaeontological Society President of the Palaeontological Association President of the International Palaeontological Association
Scientific career
Fields	Palaeontology
Institutions	University College London, the University of Nottingham, University of Leicester
Doctoral advisor	Ronald Leyshon Austin
Doctoral students	Philip Donoghue, M. Paul Smith

Richard John Aldridge (1945 – 4 February 2014) was a British palaeontologist who was the Bennett Professor of geology at the University of Leicester.

Aldridge's career began at Southampton University before moving to a temporary lectureship at University College London and then to the University of Nottingham where he remained until 1989 when, during the Oxburgh Review of Earth Sciences, he moved to his current institution, the University of Leicester, where he served two terms as Head of Department. Aldridge's research has been focused primarily on the conodont biostratigraphy and palaeobiology and one of his seminal contributions has been to uncover the vertebrate nature of the long-enigmatic conodont animal, principally in collaboration with Derek Briggs and Euan Clarkson. This was achieved through careful analysis of skeletal remains, but also through analysis of rare soft tissue remains of conodonts. This led naturally to Aldridge's current research focus which is fossil Lagerstätten. Aldridge was awarded the Pander Medal of the Pander society in 2006. He was President of the Palaeontological Association and of the British Micropalaeontological Society (1995-1998).