Michael Benton Explained

Michael Benton
Birth Name:Michael James Benton
Birth Date:1956 4, df=yes
Birth Place:Scotland
Nationality:British
Work Institution:University of Bristol
Thesis Title:The Triassic reptile Hyperodapedon from Elgin, functional morphology and relationships
Thesis Url:http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.238091
Thesis Year:1981
Education:Robert Gordon's College
Known For:Bentonyx
Prizes:Lyell Medal (2005)

Michael James Benton [1] [2] (born 8 April 1956) is a British palaeontologist, and professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol.[3] [4] 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.[5] [6]

Education

Benton was educated at Robert Gordon's College, the University of Aberdeen and Newcastle University where he was awarded a PhD in 1981.[7] [8]

Research and career

Benton's research investigates palaeobiology, palaeontology, and macroevolution.[9] [10] His research interests include: diversification of life, quality of the fossil record, shapes of phylogenies, age-clade congruence, mass extinctions,[11] Triassic ecosystem evolution, basal diapsid phylogeny, basal archosaurs, and the origin of the dinosaurs. He has made fundamental contributions to understanding the history of life, particularly concerning how biodiversity changes through time.[1] 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.[1] 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.[1] A key theme is the Permian–Triassic extinction event, 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.[1]

Benton is the author of several palaeontology text books (e.g. Vertebrate Palaeontology) and children's books on the theme of dinosaurs.[12] His work has been published in a variety of journals.[13] [14] [15] [16] Benton has also advised on many media productions including BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs and was a programme consultant for Paleoworld on Discovery Science. He also contributed to the 2002 BBC 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.[17]

Benton founded the Master of Science degree programme in Palaeobiology at Bristol in 1996, from which more than 300 students have graduated.[1] He has supervised more than 50 PhD students.[1]

As the Initiator of the Bristol Dinosaur Project Benton was also involved with creating and designing the website for the project.[18]

Publications

Honours and awards

Benton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014 for "substantial contributions to the improvement of natural knowledge"[1] and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to palaeontology and community engagement.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Professor Michael Benton FRS. royalsociety.org. Royal Society. London. Anon. 2014. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
  2. Web site: Home – The Royal Society of Edinburgh. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 28 August 2018. 2016-06-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20110517011845/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/fellowship/fellows.pdf. 17 May 2011. dead.
  3. Web site: People: Earth Sciences: University of Bristol. Liz Loeffler. bris.ac.uk.
  4. Web site: Professor Mike Benton – School of Earth Sciences. Bristol.ac.uk. 28 August 2018.
  5. 19197051. 2009. Benton. M. J.. The Red Queen and the Court Jester: Species diversity and the role of biotic and abiotic factors through time. Science. 323. 5915. 728–32. 10.1126/science.1157719. 2009Sci...323..728B. 206512702.
  6. 10.1098/rspb.2008.0715. Dinosaurs and the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 275. 1650. 2483–90. 2008. Lloyd . G. T. . Davis . K. E. . Pisani . D.. Tarver . J. E. . Ruta . M.. Sakamoto . M.. Hone . D. W. E. . Jennings . R.. Benton . M. J. . 18647715 . 2603200.
  7. PhD. University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The Triassic reptile Hyperodapedon from Elgin, functional morphology and relationships. Michael James. Benton. 1981. . jisc.ac.uk.
  8. Benton. Michael James. The Triassic Reptile Hyperodapedon from Elgin: Functional Morphology and Relationships. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 302. 1112. 1983. 605–718. 0962-8436. 10.1098/rstb.1983.0079. 1983RSPTB.302..605B.
  9. 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00612.x. How Did Life Become So Diverse? The Dynamics of Diversification According to the Fossil Record and Molecular Phylogenetics. Palaeontology. 50. 23–40. 2007. Benton . M. J. . Emerson . B. C. . 1. 2007Palgy..50...23B.
  10. 10.1093/molbev/msl150. Paleontological Evidence to Date the Tree of Life. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 24. 1. 26–53. 2006. Benton . M. J. . Michael Benton. Donoghue . P. C. J. . Philip Donoghue . 17047029. free.
  11. Web site: Macmillan. World Archipelago. macmillan.com.
  12. Web site: Thames & Hudson Publishers – Essential illustrated art books – Michael J. Benton. thamesandhudson.com. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100415172420/http://www.thamesandhudson.com/bentonm.html. 15 April 2010.
  13. 10.1130/G31182.1. Rainforest collapse triggered Carboniferous tetrapod diversification in Euramerica. Geology. 38. 12. 1079–1082. 2010. Sahney . S.. Benton . M. J.. Falcon-Lang . H. J.. 2010Geo....38.1079S.
  14. 20106856. 2936204. 2010. Sahney. S. Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land. Biology Letters. 6. 4. 544–7. Benton. M. J.. Ferry. P. A.. 10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024.
  15. 18198148. 2596898. 2008. Sahney. S. Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 275. 1636. 759–65. Benton. M. J.. 10.1098/rspb.2007.1370.
  16. Web site: Search . 2017-10-23 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150108131407/http://www.newscientist.com/search?rbauthors=Michael+Benton . 8 January 2015.
  17. Web site: Bristol University – Alumni and friends – 2011: Introducing Bentonyx. bristol.ac.uk. 15 January 2024 .
  18. Web site: 2011-09-30 . The Bristol Dinosaur Project - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol . 2023-02-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110930044104/http://www.bristoldinosaur.com/contributors-team.html . 30 September 2011 .
  19. 10.1038/423384a. Suffocated or shot?. Nature. 423. 6938. 384. 2003. Bowler . P. J. . 2003Natur.423..384B. free. Review of When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time

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