Éric Buffetaut (born 19 November 1950) is a French

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

, author and researcher at the

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

since 1976 where he is a Doctor of Science and Director of Research. Buffetaut is a specialist of fossil

archosaur Archosauria () is a clade of diapsids, with birds and crocodilians as the only living representatives. Archosaurs are broadly classified as reptiles, in the cladistic sense of the term which includes birds. Extinct archosaurs include non-avi ...

s, mainly dinosaurs and

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the Order (biology), order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cre ...

s, and has published many books on paleontology. He is one of the major paleontologists to support the thesis of the fall of a meteorite as the main cause of the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden extinction event, mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million y ...

Notable works

Buffetaut named and described the following species: * '' Archaeodontosaurus descouensi'' * '' Euthecodon arambourgi'' * '' Isanosaurus attavipachi'' * ''

Isalorhynchus genovefae ''Isalorhynchus'' is an extinct genus of hyperodapedontine rhynchosaur from the late Triassic period (Carnian stage) of Toliara Province, southwestern Madagascar. It is known from the holotype MDE-R18, a nearly complete maxilla and from other sp ...

'' * ''

Kinnareemimus khonkaenensis ''Kinnareemimus'' is a genus of ornithomimosaurian theropod dinosaur from Thailand. It is known only from incomplete remains discovered no later than the early 1990s that includes vertebrae, partial pubic bones, metatarsals, and an incomplete ...

'' * '' Normannognathus wellnhoferi'' * ''

Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae ''Phuwiangosaurus'' (meaning "Phu Wiang lizard") is a genus of titanosaur dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian-Hauterivian) Sao Khua Formation of Thailand. The type species, ''P. sirindhornae'', was described by Martin, Buffetaut, and ...

'' * ''

Psittacosaurus sattayaraki ''Psittacosaurus'' ( ; " parrot lizard") is a genus of extinct ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of what is now Asia, existing between 126 and 101 million years ago. It is notable for being the most species-rich non-avian dinos ...

'' * ''

Rhabdodon septimanicus ''Rhabdodon'' (meaning "fluted tooth") is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in Europe approximately 70-66 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous. It is similar in build to a very robust "hypsilophodont" (non-iguanodont ornithopod), thou ...

'' * '' Siamamia naga'' * ''

Siamosaurus suteethorni ''Siamosaurus'' (meaning "Siam reptile") is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now known as China and Thailand during the Early Cretaceous period (Barremian to Aptian) and is the first reported spinosaurid from Asia. It is ...

'' * ''

Siamotyrannus isanensis ''Siamotyrannus'' (meaning "Siamese tyrant") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous of Thailand. Discovery and naming In 1993, Somchai Traimwichanon found a partial skeleton of a large theropod at the Phu Wiang 9 site in Khon ...

'' * ''

Tarascosaurus salluvicus ''Tarascosaurus'' (" Tarasque lizard") is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from Late Cretaceous of France. Discovery After having in 1988 identified an upper jaw bone found near Pourcieux as belonging to a member of the Abelisaur ...

'' * '' Tilemsisuchus lavocati'' * '' Trematochampsa taqueti'' * ''

Variraptor mechinorum ''Variraptor'' ( ; "Var thief") is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of France. Discovery Between 1992 and 1995 amateur paleontologists Patrick Méchin and Annie Méchin-Salessy uncovered the remains of a small ...

'' Buffetaut demonstrated in 1982 that Dakosaurus and

Aggiosaurus ''Aggiosaurus'' is an extinct genus of geosaurine metriorhynchid crocodyliform known from the Late Jurassic (late Oxfordian stage) of Nice, southeastern France. It contains a single species, ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis'', which was named by H. Amba ...

are actually

Metriorhynchidae Metriorhynchidae is an extinct family of specialized, aquatic metriorhynchoid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous period (Bajocian to early Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. The name Metriorhynchi ...

.Buffetaut E. 1982. ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis'' Ambayrac, 1913, from the Upper Jurassic of south-eastern France: A marine crocodilian, not a dinosaur. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte'' (8): 469-475. ''

Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti ''Musturzabalsuchus'' is an extinct monospecific genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, ...

'' was named in his honor. Buffeataut worked mainly with Mesozoic reptiles including crocodylomorphs, pterosaurs and dinosaurs.

Selected publications

* ''Les Dinosaures''. Que sais-je ? n°2827, PUF, 1994 * ''Les Dinosaures de France'', avec Pascal Robin, BRGM Éditions 1995 * ''Histoire de la paléontologie''. Que sais-je ? n°2190, PUF, avril 1997 * ''Les Mondes disparus, atlas de la dérive des continents'', avec Jean Le Loeuff, Guy Le Roux, Berg International, 1998 * ''Dans les traces des dinosaures'', Les Éditions Pocket * ''La Fin des dinosaures : comment les grandes extinctions ont façonné le monde vivant.'', Fayard, 2003 * ''Les Dinosaures''. Collection "Idées reçues n°123. Éditions Le Cavalier Bleu, 2006 * ''Les dinosaures sont-ils un échec de l'évolution ?''. Éditions du Pommier, 2008 * ''Que nous racontent les fossiles ?'', éditions du Pommier, 2009 * ''Sommes-nous tous voués à disparaître ? idées reçues sur l'extinction des espèces'', Éditions Le Cavalier Bleu, 2012, * ''À la recherche des animaux mystérieux : idées reçues sur la cryptozoologie'', Le Cavalier Bleu éditions, 2016,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffetaut, Eric 1950 births Textbook writers Living people French paleontologists People from Eure