Richard Fortey
Richard Alan Fortey (* 1946 in London ) is a British paleontologist . He published a number of successful books and described over 150 species .
Fortey found his first trilobite at the age of 14 . He works at the Natural History Museum in London . Fortey has been a member of the Royal Society since 1997 . In 2006 he was awarded the Linné Medal by the Linnean Society of London . For 2007 he was elected President of the Geological Society of London . He is an honorary member of the Palaeontological Association .
He has received several prizes for his popular science books, including the Michael Faraday Prize of the Royal Society (2006), the Lewis Thomas Prize of Rockefeller University (2003), the Raymond C. Moore Medal of the Society of Sedimentary Geology (2008), the Lapworth Medal of the Palaeontological Association (2014) and the Paleontological Society Medal (2016). In 2002 he was Collier Professor of Scientific Public Relations at the Institute for Advanced Study .
He is the editor of the Treatise on Intervertebrate Paleontology on trilobites. He deals in particular with graptolites and trilobites of the Ordovician and their biostratigraphy, with the habits of trilobites (such as feeding) and with the phylogenetic origins of the main groups of arthropods , whereby he also works with molecular biologists.
He is an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews University .
Work (selection)
- The Hidden Landscape , 1993 (received a Natural World Book of the Year award in 1993 )
- Life: a biography, the first four billion years , dtv 2002, ISBN 3-423-33080-5 (Original: Life, an unauthorized biography 1997)
- Trilobites! , CH Beck 2002, ISBN 3-406-49592-3 (Original Trilobite!: Eyewitness to evolution , London, Harper Collins 2000)
- Trilobites. Fossils tell the story of the earth , dtv 2004, ISBN 3-423-34111-4 (Original: Earth: an intimate history 2004)
- The moving planet. A geological journey around the earth , spectrum Akademischer Verlag 2005 ISBN 3-8274-1585-3
- Fossils: the key to the past , 2002
- Dry Store Room No. 1. The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum , 2009 (via Natural History Museum London)
- with RM Owens: Feeding habits in Trilobites , Palaeontology, Volume 42, 1999, pp. 429-465
- with RM Owens: The Trilobite Exoskeleton , in E. Savazz (Editor) Functional Morphology of the Invertebrate Skeleton , 1999
- he worked on the new edition (1997) of the Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology , volume Trilobiten
Web links
- Literature by and about Richard Fortey in the catalog of the German National Library
- Internet presence at the Natural History Museum in London
- http://www.acba.de/texte/zeit19991111.html (Manuscript version of a review of Fortey's book "Leben. A Biography, the First Four Billion Years" by Achim Bahnen from "Die Zeit", November 11, 1999)
- http://www.americanscientist.org/template/ScientistNightstandTypeDetail/assetid/38546 (interview with Fortey from 2004)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fortey, Richard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fortey, Richard Alan (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |