Michael Benton
Michael James Benton FRS (born 9 April 1956) is a British palaeontologist, and professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. His published work has mostly concentrated on the evolution of Triassic reptiles but he has also worked on extinction events and faunal changes in the fossil record.
Education
Benton was educated at the University of Aberdeen and Newcastle University where he was awarded a PhD in 1981.
Research
Benton's research investigates palaeobiology, palaeontology, and macroevolution. Benton is the author of several palaeontology text books (e.g. Vertebrate Palaeontology) and children's books. He has also advised on many media productions including BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs and was a program consultant for Paleoworld on Discovery Science. 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, basal archosaurs, and the origin of the dinosaurs.
