Richard Alan Fortey FRS

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

(born 15 February 1946 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) is a British

palaeontologist 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 fossi ...

, natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

for its bicentennial year of 2007.

Early life and education

Fortey was educated at

Ealing Grammar School for Boys West London College, legally known as the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College is a large further and higher education college in West London, England, formed in 2002 by the merger between Ealing Tertiary College and Hammersmith and West ...

and

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, where he read Natural Sciences specialising in geology. He received a PhD and DSc from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Career

Fortey has had a long career as a palaeontologist at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...

in London; his research interests include above all,

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...

s: at the age of 14, he discovered his first trilobite, sparking a passionate interest that later became a career. He has named numerous trilobite species and still continues his research despite having retired from the Museum. He studies trilobites and

graptolite Graptolites are a group of colonial animals, members of the subclass Graptolithina within the class Pterobranchia. These filter-feeding organisms are known chiefly from fossils found from the Middle Cambrian (Miaolingian, Wuliuan) through the L ...

s, especially those from the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. ...

and their systematics,

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and modes of life; he is also involved in research on Ordovician

palaeogeography Palaeogeography (or paleogeography) is the study of historical geography, generally physical landscapes. Palaeogeography can also include the study of human or cultural environments. When the focus is specifically on landforms, the term pale ...

and correlation;

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

evolution, especially the origin of major groups and the relationships between divergence times, as revealed by molecular evidence and the

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

record. His scientific output includes over 250 papers on trilobites, Ordovician stratigraphy and palaeogeography. He is the author of popular science books on a range of subjects including geology, palaeontology, evolution and natural history. Since 2012, he has also been a television presenter appearing on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

presenting natural history programmes; was Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...

2002 and Visiting Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford 1999–2009.

Television

Fortey has appeared in several of David Attenborough's programmes, including the second episode of

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

's ''

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives ''Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives'' is a 1989 four-part BBC documentary series concerning the discovery of fossils. It is written and presented by David Attenborough, produced by Mike Salisbury, and was originally broadcast in April 1989. It was mad ...

'' in 1989, as well as '' First Life'' in 2010, travelling with the presenter to the Atlas mountains to find and film trilobite fossils. He contributed to the speculative

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

documentary series ''

The Future Is Wild ''The Future Is Wild'' (also referred to by the acronym ''FIW'') is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise. ''The Future Is Wild'' explores the ecosystems and wildlife of three ...

''. In 2012, Fortey presented the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

series ''Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures'', which took a global look at modern-day species whose ancestors survived mass extinction events in the Earth's history, while in 2013 he presented the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

programme ''The Secret Life of Rock Pools'', which aired on 16 April 2013. In 2014, Fortey presented the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

three part series ''Fossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures'', followed by ''The Magic of Mushrooms'', in which he showed that fungi had close but still poorly understood inter-relationships with plants and animals including man. In 2016, he presented the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

programme ''Nature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution'', a three part series on evolution on islands. He appeared on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

's "

University Challenge ''University Challenge'' is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. ''University Challenge'' aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC ...

– The Professionals" in 2004, as a member of the Palaeontological Association team, who beat the

Eden Project The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay clay pit, pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnanc ...

Books

* ''Fossils: The Key to the Past'', Natural History Museum (1982, fifth edition 2015) *''The Hidden Landscape'', Jonathan Cape (1993, ), Bodley Head (revised edition 2010) * ''Life: An Unauthorised Biography. A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth'',

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

(1997, ) Folio Society edition (2008) * ''Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution'', HarperCollins (2000, ) * ''The Earth: An Intimate History'', HarperCollins (2004, ) Folio Society edition (2011) * ''Dry Store Room no.1'', HarperCollins (2008, ) * ''Survivors : The animals and Plants that Time has Left Behind'', HarperCollins (2011), published as Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms (2012) in the US. * ''The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood'', William Collins (2016, ) He has also penned humorous titles under two pseudonyms. * ''The Roderick Masters Book of Money Making Schemes, or How to Become Enormously Wealthy with Virtually no Effort'', published anonymously Rutledge & Kegan Paul Ltd (1981, ) * ''Bindweed's Bestseller'' Ed. Heather & David Godwin, Jackie & Richard Fortey, Pan Books (1982, )

Awards and honours

For his academic research he has won the

Lyell Medal The Lyell Medal is a prestigious annual scientific medal given by the Geological Society of London, equal in status to the Murchison Medal. This medal is awarded based on one Earth Scientist's exceptional contribution of research to the scientific ...

of the

, the Linnean Medal for Zoology of the Linnean Society of London, the Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the R. C. Moore Medal of the SEPM, the T. N. George Medal of the

Geological Society of Glasgow The Geological Society of Glasgow is a scientific society devoted to the study of geology in Scotland. The society contributed to the understanding of Scotland's glacial history, and the relationship between the Earth's rotation and climate c ...

; in 1997 he was elected as a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

. His popular science writing has earned him the Natural World Book of the Year award (1994) for ''The Hidden Landscape''; the

Lewis Thomas Prize The Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science, named for its first recipient, Lewis Thomas, is an annual literary prize awarded by The Rockefeller University to scientists or physicians deemed to have accomplished a significant literary achieveme ...

for science writing (2003) and is the 2006 holder of the Royal Society's

Michael Faraday Prize The Royal Society of London Michael Faraday Prize is awarded for "excellence in communicating science to UK audiences". Named after Michael Faraday, the medal itself is made of silver gilt, and is accompanied by a purse of £2500. Background ...

for the public communication of science. In 1998, ''Life: An Unauthorised Biography'' was shortlisted for the

Rhône-Poulenc Prize The Royal Society Science Books Prize is an annual £25,000 prize awarded by the Royal Society to celebrate outstanding popular science books from around the world. It is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience, and ...

, in 2001, ''Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution'' was shortlisted the

Samuel Johnson Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its ...

, the UK's most prestigious non-fiction award and in 2005 ''Earth: An Intimate History'' was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Aventis prize for science books. ''Life: an Unauthorised Biography'' was listed as one of ten Books of the Year by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He has also turned his pen to writing dinosaur poems for children and even a spoof book on the

Rubik's Cube The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in t ...

. Fortey was elected president of the

for its bicentennial year of 2007 and was recently awarded honorary degrees by the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

; the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

; the

Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

and

Leicester University , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

. He has also been president of the Palaeontological Association and Palaeontographical Society; in 2009 was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

. Fortey has also served on the councils of the Systematics Association; the Royal Society; the Palaeontographical Society (ex president); the British Mycological Society (vice president), and on the Stratigraphy Committee of the Geological Society of London; has served on the editorial boards of the ''Terra Nova''; the ''Palaeontographica Italiana''; the ''Historical Biology''; the ''Biological Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'' and the ''Biology Letters''.

References

External links

*
Review
by

Tim Radford Tim Radford (born 1940) is a British–New Zealand freelance journalist, born in New Zealand in 1940 and educated at Sacred Heart College, Auckland. At 16, he joined ''The New Zealand Herald'' as a reporter. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1 ...

of the book '' Earth: An Intimate History'', by Richard Fortey, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortey, Richard 1946 births Living people British palaeontologists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Geological Society of London Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Employees of the Natural History Museum, London People educated at Ealing County Grammar School for Boys Lyell Medal winners Alumni of King's College, Cambridge