Currently, dinosaurs are seen as having suffered sudden extinction by a massive asteroid impact 66 million years ago, but new analyses suggest a longer decline. This changes our view on many aspects of evolution.

This event is part of our public Minerva lecture series.

Speaker profiles

Michael James Benton is a palaeontologist, and professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the School 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. Benton is the author of several palaeontology text books, such as 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. Benton has also been contributing to some documentaries. One of these was BBC's 2002 programme The Day The Earth Nearly Died, which features scientists, and deals with the mysteries of the Permian extinction. In December 2010, a rhynchosaur was named Bentonyx in Benton's honour.

Benton's work appears in a variety of journals and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014.

Who should attend

Open to public

Accessibility

Free parking is available in the University car parks after 5pm.