| A lamprey from the Devonian period of South Africa RW Gess, MI Coates, BS Rubidge Nature 443 (7114), 981-984, 2006 | 312 | 2006 |
| Palaeontological heritage of the Eastern Cape JE Almond, B de Klerk, R Gess Unpublished technical report prepared for Heritage Western Cape, 7-8, 2008 | 89 | 2008 |
| A symmoriiform chondrichthyan braincase and the origin of chimaeroid fishes MI Coates, RW Gess, JA Finarelli, KE Criswell, K Tietjen Nature 541 (7636), 208-211, 2017 | 73 | 2017 |
| A NEW RECONSTRUCTION OF ONYCHOSELACHE TRAQUAIRI, COMMENTS ON EARLY CHONDRICHTHYAN PECTORAL GIRDLES AND HYBODONTIFORM … MI Coates, RW Gess Palaeontology 50 (6), 1421-1446, 2007 | 67 | 2007 |
| Non-ammocoete larvae of Palaeozoic stem lampreys T Miyashita, RW Gess, K Tietjen, MI Coates Nature 591 (7850), 408-412, 2021 | 58 | 2021 |
| Archaeopteris (Progymnospermopsida) from the Devonian of southern Africa HM Anderson, N Hiller, RW Gess Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 117 (4), 305-320, 1995 | 53 | 1995 |
| A preliminary catalogue of fossil algal, plant, arthropod, and fish remains from a Late Devonian black shale near Grahamstown, South Africa RW Gess, N Hiller Cape Provincial Museums, 1995 | 48 | 1995 |
| New placoderm fishes from the Late Devonian of South Africa JA Long, ME Anderson, R Gess, N Hiller Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17 (2), 253-268, 1997 | 46 | 1997 |
| The first Bothriolepis-associated Devonian fish fauna from Africa RW Anderson, ME,* Hiller, N. &Gess South African Journal of Science 90 (7), 397-403, 1994 | 37 | 1994 |
| Fossil juvenile coelacanths from the Devonian of South Africa shed light on the order of character acquisition in actinistians RW Gess, MI Coates Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 175 (2), 360-383, 2015 | 28 | 2015 |
| Estuarine fish and tetrapod evolution: insights from a Late Devonian (Famennian) Gondwanan estuarine lake and a southern African Holocene equivalent RW Gess, AK Whitfield Biological Reviews 95 (4), 865-888, 2020 | 26 | 2020 |
| A tetrapod fauna from within the Devonian Antarctic Circle R Gess, PE Ahlberg Science 360 (6393), 1120-1124, 2018 | 25 | 2018 |
| The rooting system of Leptophloeum Dawson: new material from the upper Devonian, Famennian Witpoort formation of South Africa C Prestianni, RW Gess Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 209, 35-40, 2014 | 25 | 2014 |
| High-latitude chondrichthyans from the Late Devonian (Famennian) Witpoort Formation of South Africa RW Gess, MI Coates Paläontologische Zeitschrift 89, 147-169, 2015 | 23 | 2015 |
| The earliest record of terrestrial animals in Gondwana: a scorpion from the Famennian (Late Devonian) Witpoort Formation of South Africa: Arachnida RW Gess African Invertebrates 54 (2), 373-379, 2013 | 22 | 2013 |
| Late Devonian charophytes from the Witteberg Group, South Africa RW Gess, N Hiller Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 89 (3-4), 417-428, 1995 | 22 | 1995 |
| New morphological information on, and species of placoderm fish Africanaspis (Arthrodira, Placodermi) from the Late Devonian of South Africa RW Gess, KM Trinajstic PLoS One 12 (4), e0173169, 2017 | 20 | 2017 |
| Update on the flower associations of southern African Masarinae with notes on the nesting of Masarina strucki Gess and Celonites gariepensis Gess (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Masarinae) RW Gess, S.K., Gess, F.W. and Gess Journal of Hymenoptera Research 6, 75-91, 1997 | 20* | 1997 |
| An early Devonian flora from the Baviaanskloof Formation (Table Mountain Group) of South Africa RW Gess, C Prestianni Scientific Reports 11 (1), 11859, 2021 | 19 | 2021 |
| An unusual new fossil shark (Pisces: Chondrichthyes) from the Late Devonian of South Africa ME Anderson, JA Long, RW Gess, N Hiller | 17 | 1999 |
