Éric Buffetaut (born 19 November 1950) is a French

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

, author and researcher at the

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

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

archosaur Archosauria () or archosaurs () is a clade of diapsid sauropsid tetrapods, with birds and crocodilians being the only extant taxon, extant representatives. Although broadly classified as reptiles, which traditionally exclude birds, the cladistics ...

s, mainly dinosaurs and

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

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 K–T extinction, was the extinction event, mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth approximately 66 million years ago. The event cau ...

Notable works

Buffetaut named and described the following species: * '' Archaeodontosaurus descouensi'' * '' Castignovolucris sebei'' * '' Euthecodon arambourgi'' * '' Isanosaurus attavipachi'' * '' Isalorhynchus genovefae'' * '' Kinnareemimus khonkaenensis'' * '' Normannognathus wellnhoferi'' * '' Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae'' * '' Psittacosaurus sattayaraki'' * '' Rhabdodon septimanicus'' * '' Siamamia naga'' * '' Siamosaurus suteethorni'' * '' Siamotyrannus isanensis'' * '' Tarascosaurus salluvicus'' * '' Tilemsisuchus lavocati'' * '' Trematochampsa taqueti'' * '' Variraptor mechinorum'' Buffetaut demonstrated in 1982 that '' Dakosaurus'' and '' Aggiosaurus'' are actually members of the Metriorhynchidae.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. In 1997, the crocodylomorph '' Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti'' was named in his honor. In 2025, the ctenochasmatid pterosaur '' Garudapterus buffetauti'' was named in his honor. Buffeataut works 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 French textbook writers Living people French paleontologists People from Eure