Professor Mike Benton

Summary

My interests include the diversification of life through time, 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.

Current research projects focus on the end-Permian mass extinction, the greatest mass extinction of all time, and especially its effects on terrestrial organisms. This involves fieldwork in Russia and China. I am also working on large-scale aspects of dating the tree of life, the use of phylogenetic means to assess the quality of the rock and fossil records, and studying macroevolution using comparative phylogenetics approaches.

Keywords

• fossils
• fossil records
• basal diapsid phylogeny
• basal archosaurs

Memberships

Organisations

School of Earth Sciences

Academic staff

• Earth Sciences academic staff

Research groups

• Palaeobiology and Biodiversity

Research themes

• Evolution of Biodiversity and Morphology

Links

• MSc in Palaeobiology
• Palaeobiology & Biodiversity Research Group Home Page

Recent publications

• Newell, AJ, Benton, MJ, Kearsey, T, Taylor, G, Twitchett, RJ & Tverdokhlebov, VP 2012, ‘Calcretes, fluviolacustrine sediments and subsidence patterns in Permo-Triassic salt-walled minibasins of the south Urals, Russia’. Sedimentology, vol 59., pp. 1659-1676
• Sassoon, J, Noe, LF & Benton, MJ 2012, ‘Cranial anatomy, taxonomic implications and palaeopathology of an Upper Jurassic Pliosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from Westbury, Wiltshire, UK’. Palaeontology, vol 55., pp. 743-773
• Benton, MJ 2012, ‘No gap in the Middle Permian record of terrestrial vertebrates’. Geology, vol 40., pp. 339-342
• Wen, W, Zhang, Q, Hu, S, Zhou, C, Xe, T, Huang, J, Chen, ZQ & Benton, MJ 2012, ‘A new basal actinopterygian fish from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Luoping, Yunnan Province, Southwest China’. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, vol 57., pp. 149-160
• Berg, Tvd, Whiteside, DI, Viegas, P, Schouten, R & Benton, MJ 2012, ‘The Late Triassic microvertebrate fauna of Tytherington, UK’. Geologists' Association, vol 123., pp. 638-648
• Benton, MJ, Schouten, R, Drewitt, EJA & Viegas, P 2012, ‘The Bristol Dinosaur Project’. Geologists' Association, vol 123., pp. 210-225
• Benton, MJ 2012, ‘Naming the Bristol dinosaur, Thecodontosaurus: politics and science in the 1830s’. Geologists' Association, vol 123., pp. 766-778
• Parham, JF, Donoghue, PCJ, Bell, CJ, Calway, TD, Head, JJ, Holroyd, PA, Inoue, JG, Irmis, RB, Joyce, WG, Ksepka, DT, Patane, JSL, Smith, ND, Tarver, JE, Tuinen, Mv, Yang, Z, Angielczyk, KD, Greenwood, JM, Hipsley, CA, Jacobs, L, Makovicky, PJ, Mueller, J, Smith, KT, Theodor, JM, Warnock, RCM & Benton, MJ 2012, ‘Best Practices for Justifying Fossil Calibrations’. Systematic Biology, vol 61., pp. 346-359
• Jardine, PE, Janis, CM, Sahney, S & Benton, MJ 2012, ‘Grit not grass: Concordant patterns of early origin of hypsodonty in Great Plains ungulates and Glires’. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol 365., pp. 1-10
• Chen, Z & Benton, MJ 2012, ‘The timing and pattern of biotic recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction’. Nature Geoscience, vol 5., pp. 375-383

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Projects

• Bricolage

Courses

Professor Benton currently teaches 2 courses: