Michael James Benton (born 8 April 1956) is a British palaeontologist, and professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. His published work has mostly concentrated on the evolution of

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

reptiles Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

but he has also worked on extinction events and faunal changes in the fossil record.

Education

Benton was educated at Robert Gordon's College, the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

and

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

where he was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1981.

Research and career

Benton's research investigates palaeobiology,

palaeontology 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 geo ...

, and

macroevolution Macroevolution comprises the evolutionary processes and patterns which occur at and above the species level. In contrast, microevolution is evolution occurring within the population(s) of a single species. In other words, microevolution is the ...

. His research interests include: diversification of life, quality of the fossil record, shapes of phylogenies, age-clade congruence, mass extinctions, Triassic ecosystem evolution, basal diapsid

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

, basal

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, and the origin of the dinosaurs. He has made fundamental contributions to understanding the history of life, particularly concerning how biodiversity changes through time. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: He has led in integrating data from living and fossil organisms to generate phylogenies – solutions to the question of how major groups originated and diversified through time. This approach has revolutionised the understanding of major questions, including the relative roles of internal and external drivers on the history of life, whether diversity reaches saturation, the significance of mass extinctions, and how major clades radiate. A key theme is the

Permian–Triassic extinction event The Permian–Triassic extinction event (also known as the P–T extinction event, the Late Permian extinction event, the Latest Permian extinction event, the End-Permian extinction event, and colloquially as the Great Dying,) was an extinction ...

, the largest mass extinction of all time, which took place over 250 million years ago, where he investigates how life was able to recover from such a devastating event. Benton is the author of several palaeontology text books (e.g. '' Vertebrate Palaeontology'') and children's books on the theme of dinosaurs. His work has been published in a variety of journals. Benton has also advised on many media productions including BBC's ''

Walking with Dinosaurs ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit, the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. ...

'' and was a programme consultant for ''

Paleoworld ''Paleoworld'' (''Jurassica'' in Europe) is an American documentary television series that aired on The Learning Channel from 1994 to 1999. The series focused on paleontology and comprised 50 half-hour episodes spread over four seasons. It was t ...

'' on

Discovery Science Discovery science (also known as discovery-based science) is a scientific methodology which aims to find new patterns, correlations, and form hypotheses through the analysis of large-scale experimental data. The term “discovery science” enc ...

. He also contributed to the 2002

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

programme '' The Day The Earth Nearly Died'', which featured scientists and dealt with the mysteries of the Permian extinction. In December 2010, Benton had a rhynchosaur ('' Bentonyx'') named in his honour. Benton founded the

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree programme in Palaeobiology at Bristol in 1996, from which more than 300 students have graduated. He has supervised more than 50 PhD students. As the Initiator of the Bristol Dinosaur Project Benton was also involved with creating and designing the website for the project. Below is a list of

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

that Benton has contributed to naming:

Publications

*''Dinosaurs an A-Z Guide'' (1988, Kingfisher) *''The phylogeny and classification of the tetrapods'' (1998, ed. Volumes 1 and 2) *''Prehistoric Animals'' (1989, Kingfisher) *''Vertebrate Palaeontology'' (4th edition, 2014, Wiley-Blackwell) *''On the trail of the dinosaur'' (1989, Quarto Publishing) *''The reign of the reptiles'' (1991) *''The rise of the mammals'' (1991) *''The fossil record 2'' (1993, ed.) *''Dinosaur and Other Prehistoric Animal Fact Finder'' (1993) *''Fossil reptiles of Great Britain'' (1995, with P. S. Spencer) *''The Viking atlas of evolution'' (1997, with R. Osborne) *''The Penguin historical atlas of the dinosaurs'' (1997) *'' Basic Palaeontology'' (1997, with D. A. T. Harper) *''Walking with dinosaurs: the facts'' (2000) *''The age of dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia'' (2000, ed., with D. M. Unwin, M. A. Shishkin and E. N. Kurochkin) *''Permian and Triassic red beds and the Penarth Group of Great Britain'' (2002, with E. Cook and P. J. Turner) *''When life nearly died: the greatest mass extinction of all time'' (1st edition, 2003; 2nd edition, 2008) *''Mesozoic and Tertiary fossil mammals and birds of Great Britain'' (2005, with L. Cook, D. Schreve, A Currant, and J. J. Hooker) *''Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record '' (2009, with David A.T Harper) *The first four billion years *''The Dinosaurs Rediscovered: How a Scientific Revolution is Rewriting History'', (2019) *''Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World'' (2021) *''Extinctions: How Life Survives, Adapts and Evolves'' (2023) *''Dinosaur Behavior: An Illustrated Guide'' (2023)

Honours and awards

Benton was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) in 2014 for "substantial contributions to the improvement of natural knowledge" and a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(FRSE). He was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to palaeontology and community engagement. In 2024 he was awarded the Lapworth Medal from the Palaeontological Association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benton, Michael Living people People educated at Robert Gordon's College British palaeontologists Scottish palaeontologists Academics of the University of Bristol Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Lyell Medal winners Fellows of the Royal Society 1956 births Officers of the Order of the British Empire Presidents of the Geologists' Association Alumni of the University of Aberdeen