Peter Malcolm Galton (born 14 March 1942 in London) is a British vertebrate paleontologist who has to date written or co-written about 190 papers in scientific journals or chapters in paleontology textbooks, especially on

ornithischia Ornithischia () is an extinct clade of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek ...

n and

prosauropod Sauropodomorpha ( ; from Greek, meaning "lizard-footed forms") is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the Sauropoda, sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large siz ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s. With

Robert Bakker Robert Thomas Bakker (born March 24, 1945) is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic (warm-blooded). Along with his mentor ...

in a joint article published in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' in 1974, he argued that dinosaurs constitute a natural

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group, in contrast to the prevailing view that considered them

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

and consisting of two different unrelated

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

, thus initiating a revolution in dinosaur studies and contributing to the revival of the popularity of dinosaurs in the field of paleontology.

Publications

* * * Galton, P.M., 1974, "The ornithischian dinosaur ''Hypsilophodon'' from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight". ''British Museum (Natural History), Bulletin, Geology, London'', 25: 1‑152c. * Bakker, R.T. and Galton, P.M. (1974). "Dinosaur monophyly and a new class of vertebrates". ''Nature'' 248:168-172. * Galton, P.M. (1982). "The postcranial anatomy of stegosaurian dinosaur ''Kentrosaurus'' from the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania, East Africa". ''Geologica et Palaeontologica'' 15:139-165. * Galton, P.M. (1984). "Cranial anatomy of the prosauropod dinosaur ''Plateosaurus'' from the Knollenmergel (Middle Keuper, Upper Triassic) of Germany. I. Two complete skulls from Trossingen/Württ. With comments on the diet". ''Geologica et Palaeontologica'' 18:139-171. * Galton, P.M. (1985). "Cranial anatomy of the prosauropod dinosaur ''Plateosaurus'' from the Knollenmergel (Middle Keuper, Upper Triassic) of Germany. II. All the cranial material and details of soft-part anatomy". ''Geologica et Palaeontologica'' 19:119-159. * Galton, P.M. (1986). "Prosauropod dinosaur ''Plateosaurus'' (=''Gresslyosaurus'') (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha) from the Upper Triassic of Switzerland". ''Geologica et Paleontologica'' 20:167-183. * Galton, P.M. (1988). "Skull bones and endocranial casts of stegosaurian dinosaur ''Kentrosaurus'' HENNIG, 1915 from Upper Jurassic of Tanzania, East Africa". ''Geologica et Palaeontologica'' 22:123-143. * Galton, P.M. (1990). "Basal Sauropodomorpha-Prosauropoda". pp. 320–344 in Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P. and Osmólska, H. (eds.): ''The Dinosauria''. University of California Press, Berkeley * Galton, P.M. (2000). "The prosauropod dinosaur ''Plateosaurus'' Meyer, 1837 (Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha). I: The syntypes of ''P. engelhardti'' Meyer, 1837 (Upper Triassic, Germany), with notes on other European prosauropods with "distally straight" femora". ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie'', Abhandlungen 216(2):233-275. * Galton, P.M. (2001). "The prosauropod dinosaur ''Plateosaurus'' Meyer, 1837 (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha; Upper Triassic). II. Notes on the referred species". ''Revue Paléobiologie, Genève'' 20(2):435-502. * Galton, P.M. and Upchurch, P. (2004). "Prosauropoda". pp. 232–258 in Weishampel Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P. and Osmólska, H. (eds.): ''The Dinosauria'' 2nd Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.

References

British palaeontologists British science writers 1942 births Living people British textbook writers {{UK-scientist-stub