M. Paul Smith

Paul Smith
Born
England England
NationalityBritish United Kingdom
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham
University of Leicester
Scientific career
FieldsPalaeontology
InstitutionsUniversity of Birmingham
Doctoral advisorRichard Aldridge
Doctoral studentsIvan Sansom
Websitehttps://www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/people/paul-smith

M. Paul Smith is a British palaeontologist, head of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and professor in Kellogg College. Previously he was Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham, head of the university's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Director of its Lapworth Museum of Geology.[1] He received his BSc from the University of Leicester and his PhD from the University of Nottingham.

Smith's research primarily has focused on the conodont palaeobiology and the early Palaeozoic radiation of vertebrates. He is known for discovering that conodont teeth were made of bone cells, such as are found only in vertebrates. This dated the origin of the vertebrates to 515 million years before the present, 40 million years earlier than had been previously thought.[2]

He was also involved in the geological mapping of northeastern Greenland.[3][4]

He is Chair of the Publications Board of The Palaeontological Association,[5] and joint editor of the Systematics Association special volume, Donoghue, Philip C. J., and M. Paul Smith. Telling the Evolutionary Time: Molecular Clocks and the Fossil Record. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-415-27524-8.[6][7][8][9]

  1. ^ "BHF - Lapworth Museum of Geology".
  2. ^ Malcolm W. Brown "Evidence of Bone Shows Vertebrates To Be Far Older Than Once Believed" New york Times, May 29, 1992 [1]
  3. ^ Oxford Museum webpage.
  4. ^ "The adventures of a geologist: From shipwrecks to mapping the Arctic". New Scientist. 23 November 2019.
  5. ^ "The Palaeontological Association | Reg. Charity No. 1168330".
  6. ^ Review, Systematic Biology, 54, no. 1 (2005): 174-176
  7. ^ Review, Systematic Biology, Feb., 2005, vol. 54, no. 1, p. 174-176
  8. ^ Review, Quarterly Review of Biology, Dec., 2004, vol. 79, no. 4, p. 413-414
  9. ^ Review, Geological Magazine, 141, no. 3 (2004): 389-390