Best Paleontology

J. John Sepkoski Jr. (1948-1999) was an American paleontologist whose research used large fossil databases to study the history of marine life and patterns of extinction. His compendium of fossil marine genera provided a standardized body of data for quantitative paleontology and helped researchers...

Nicolas Steno was a pioneering 17th-century Danish geologist whose work significantly advanced our understanding of Earth’s history. He developed key concepts in stratigraphy—the study of layered rock formations—crystallography and paleontology. His observations regarding the orientation of sediment...

Alcide d'Orbigny was a French naturalist and paleontologist whose work on foraminifera helped establish micropaleontology as a field of study. He described and classified numerous microscopic shelled organisms, used fossils in the study of geological strata, and published research based on his scien...

Raymond Cecil Moore was an American geologist and paleontologist who lived from 1892 to 1974. He is best known for founding and editing the extensive reference work, the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, in 1948. Throughout his career at the University of Kansas, he made significant contributio...

Philip J. Currie is a prominent Canadian paleontologist recognized for his extensive research on theropod dinosaurs, particularly those from the Late Cretaceous period. He played a key role in the founding of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta and later became a professor at the Un...

James Hall was an American paleontologist and geologist who lived from 1811 to 1898. He served as the New York State Paleontologist and was a leading figure in 19th-century American geology. Hall is best known for his extensive work on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Paleozoic era, building...

Harry Blackmore Whittington (1916–2010) was a prominent British paleontologist at the University of Cambridge. From the 1970s through the 1980s, he led a comprehensive re-examination of the Burgess Shale fossil deposits in the Canadian Rockies alongside his students Simon Conway Morris and Derek Bri...

Steven M. Stanley is an American geologist and paleobiologist whose research examined macroevolution, biodiversity, and the fossil record. He is associated with the escalation hypothesis, which links long-term evolutionary change to interactions such as predation and competition. Stanley also wrote...

Joseph Burr Tyrrell was a Canadian geologist, paleontologist, and explorer associated with the Geological Survey of Canada. In 1884, while surveying near the Red Deer River in Alberta, he discovered dinosaur fossils that included the skull later identified as Albertosaurus sarcophagus. His fieldwork...

Joachim Barrande was a French geologist and paleontologist who carried out most of his major research in Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire. His multi-volume Système silurien du centre de la Bohême documented Paleozoic rocks and fossils, especially trilobites, brachiopods, and cephalopods. Ba...

John Horner is an American paleontologist who served as the curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. He gained international recognition for his groundbreaking discoveries of dinosaur nesting sites, notably the "Egg Mountain" locality. Horner's work with the duck-bil...

"SeaBed" is a psychological mystery visual novel developed by the independent studio Paleontology and released in 2016. The narrative centers on a complex and emotionally charged relationship between women, primarily focusing on two characters dealing with memory loss and mental health struggles. Th...

PBS Eons offers accessible science education focusing on paleontology and evolutionary biology. The channel utilizes animation and narration to explain complex scientific concepts related to prehistoric life and Earth’s history. It is particularly valuable for individuals interested in natural histo...

William Daniel Conybeare was an English geologist, paleontologist, and Anglican clergyman whose work helped develop the scientific study of British strata and fossil reptiles. With William Phillips, he co-authored Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales, published in 1822, an influential accoun...

Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon was a Scottish geologist and paleontologist whose principal field research concerned the structure and fossils of the Dolomites and South Tyrol. She published detailed studies of the region’s rock formations and fossil material, often writing in German as well as English...

Louis Agassiz was a Swiss-born American geologist whose work fundamentally shaped our understanding of Earth’s history. He is notable for independently developing the theory of past glacial expansion, predating Darwin's evolutionary ideas. His observations of eroded landscapes and moraines provided...

William Daniel Conybeare was a 19th-century British geologist, paleontologist, and clergyman recognized for his foundational contributions to stratigraphy. In 1822, he co-authored "Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales" with William Phillips, a highly influential text in the field. He is also...

Building upon the groundbreaking success of the first season, Prehistoric Planet II utilizes cutting-edge CGI and paleontological research to vividly recreate the world of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. The series features narration by David Attenborough and a team of leading paleontolo...

Walter Alvarez was an American geologist whose research significantly advanced our understanding of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. He and his team proposed in 1980 that a large asteroid impact, centered in the Yucatan Peninsula, triggered widespread devastation leading to the demise of n...

Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864) was an American geologist, professor of natural history at Amherst College, and later its president. He studied the fossil footprints preserved in the sandstone of the Connecticut River Valley, beginning published work in 1836, and assembled a large collection of track s...

Andrew Knoll is a geologist specializing in paleontology, focusing primarily on the Precambrian era. His work investigates the emergence of early life through the study of biomineralization and ancient rock formations. He conducts research at Harvard University examining how life first developed on...

Douglas Erwin is an American paleobiologist and curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He is widely recognized for his extensive research on the end-Permian mass extinction, the most severe biodiversity crisis in Earth's history. Erwin's work focuses on the evolutionary dynam...

Mare aux Songes is a fossil-rich marsh located in southeastern Mauritius that serves as the primary site for subfossil remains of the extinct dodo. In 1865, schoolteacher George Clark unearthed abundant dodo bones here, providing the first substantial skeletal material to science. Later excavations...

Alice Evelyn Wilson (1881-1964) was a Canadian geologist and paleontologist associated with the Geological Survey of Canada. She began working there in 1909 in invertebrate paleontology, completed a geology PhD at the University of Chicago in 1929, and became the first woman employed as a geologist...

William Buckland was an English theologian, geologist, and paleontologist who served as Dean of Westminster. In 1824, he published the first full scientific description of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus, based on a jawbone found in Oxfordshire. He was also an early pioneer in the fie...

Nicholas Butterfield is a paleontologist based at the University of Cambridge whose research focuses on the fossil record of Proterozoic and early Cambrian life, particularly early eukaryotes and the exceptional preservation of soft-bodied organisms in ancient marine deposits. His published work has...

John Strong Newberry (1822–1892) was an American geologist, physician, and explorer who made significant contributions to paleobotany and stratigraphy. He served as a surgeon and geologist on multiple government survey expeditions in the western United States, including the Colorado River survey led...

Sir Douglas Mawson was an Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer who led the 1911 to 1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. During this expedition, his team explored thousands of miles of previously uncharted coastline and collected vast amounts of scientific data. Mawson's work significantly...

Keith Runcorn was a British physicist whose research in paleomagnetism provided crucial physical evidence for the theory of continental drift. During the 1950s, he collected and analyzed magnetic data from ancient rocks to trace the historical movement of Earth's magnetic poles. Runcorn discovered t...