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			{{Short description\|British paleontologist}}
	'''Richard A. Fortey''' ] (born ] in ]) is a British ] and writer, formerly a Merit Researcher at the ] in London. Since 1997, he has been a member of the ].
			{{Use dmy dates\|date=February 2022}}
			{{Infobox scientist
			\| name = Richard Alan Fortey
			\| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals\|country=GBR\|size=100%\|OBE\|FRS\|FRSL}}
			\| image = Richard Fortey in Adelaide, South Australia 2014.jpg
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			\| caption = Fortey in 2014
			\| birth_date = {{Birth date and age\|df=yes\|1946\|02\|15}}
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			\| website = {{URL\|www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/staff-directory/palaeontology/cv-5469.html}}
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			'''Richard Alan Fortey''' (born 15 February 1946<ref name=pot/> in ]) is a British ], natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of the ] for its bicentennial year of 2007.

			==Early life and education==
	Prof. Fortey’s research interests include, above all, ]s. He has stated that he found his first one when he was 14, and the interest later turned into a career. He has named numerous trilobite species.
			Fortey was educated at ] and ], where he read Natural Sciences specialising in geology.<ref name=pot>{{cite web\|url=http://www.debretts.com/people-of-today/profile/599/Richard-Alan-FORTEY\|title=Richard Alan FORTEY\|website=]\|access-date=29 October 2014}}{{dead link\|date=December 2017 \|bot=InternetArchiveBot \|fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> He received a PhD and DSc from the ].

			==Career==
	Fortey studies trilobites and ]s, especially those from the ], and their systematics, ] and modes of life. He is also involved in research on Ordovician ] and correlation; ] evolution, especially the origin of major groups; and the relationships between divergence times as revealed by molecular evidence and the ] record.
			Fortey has had a long career as a palaeontologist at the ] in London;<ref name="NHMBio">{{cite web
			\|url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/staff-directory/palaeontology/r-fortey/index.html
			\|title=Prof Richard Fortey
			\|publisher=Natural History Museum
			\|access-date=26 July 2012}}</ref> his research interests include above all, ]s: at the age of 14, he discovered his first trilobite, sparking a passionate interest that later became a career. He has named numerous trilobite species and still continues his research despite having retired from the Museum.

			He studies trilobites and ]s, especially those from the ] and their systematics, ] and modes of life; he is also involved in research on Ordovician ] and correlation; ] evolution, especially the origin of major groups and the relationships between divergence times, as revealed by molecular evidence and the ] record. His scientific output includes over 250 papers on trilobites, Ordovician stratigraphy and palaeogeography.
	He has won the ] for science writing. In 1993, Fortey's ''The Hidden Landscape'' was named the ]. He appeared on BBC2's "] - The Professionals" in 2004, as a member of the Palaeontological Association team, who beat the ].

			He is the author of popular science books on a range of subjects including geology, palaeontology, evolution and natural history.
	Professor Fortey has been elected to be President of the ] for its bicentennial year of 2007.
			Since 2012, he has also been a television presenter appearing on ] presenting natural history programmes; was Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the ] 2002 and visiting professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford 1999–2009.

			==Television==
	He was also one of the scientists who worked on the ] program ]
			Fortey has appeared in several of David Attenborough's programmes, including the second episode of ]'s '']'' in 1989, as well as '']'' in 2010, travelling with the presenter to the Atlas mountains to find and film trilobite fossils. He contributed to the speculative ] documentary series '']''.

			In 2012, Fortey presented the ] series ''Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures'', which took a global look at modern-day species whose ancestors survived mass ]s in the Earth's history,<ref>{{Cite web\|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bcxdh\|title = BBC Four – Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures}}</ref> while in 2013 he presented the ] programme ''The Secret Life of Rock Pools'', which aired on 16 April 2013.<ref>{{Cite web\|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rtdr4\|title = BBC Four – the Secret Life of Rockpools}}</ref>

			In 2014, Fortey presented the ] three part series ''Fossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures'',<ref>{{Cite web\|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03y6tg6\|title = BBC Four – Fossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures}}</ref> followed by ''The Magic of Mushrooms'', in which he showed that fungi had close but still poorly understood inter-relationships with plants and animals including man.
			In 2016, he presented the ] programme ''Nature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution'', a three part series on evolution on islands.<ref>{{Cite web\|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yjly5\|title = BBC Four – Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution}}</ref>

			He appeared on ]'s "] – The Professionals" in 2004, as a member of the Palaeontological Association team, who beat the ].

			==Honours==
			Fortey was appointed ] (OBE) in the ] for services to palaeontology and geology.<ref>{{London Gazette\|issue=63918\|supp=y\|page=N13\|date=31 December 2022}}</ref>

	==Books==		==Books==
			* ''A Curious Boy'', William Collins (2021, ISBN 978-0-00-832396-7'')''
	* ''The Hidden Landscape'' (1993)
	* ''~~Life~~: An ~~Unauthorised~~ ~~Biography.~~ A Natural History of ~~the~~ ~~First~~ ~~Four~~ ~~Billion Years of Life on Earth'' (1997~~)		* ''Fossils: The Key to the Past'', Natural History Museum (1982, fifth edition 2015)
			*''The Hidden Landscape'', Jonathan Cape (1993, {{ISBN\|0-224-03651-3}}), Bodley Head (revised edition 2010)
	* ''Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution'' (2000)
			* ], ] (1997, {{ISBN\|0-00-638420-X}}) Folio Society edition (2008)
	* ''Fossils: The Key to the Past'' (2002)
			* ''Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution'', HarperCollins (2000, {{ISBN\|0-00-655138-6}})
	* ''The Earth: An Intimate History'' (2004)
			* ''The Earth: An Intimate History'', HarperCollins (2004, {{ISBN\|0-00-655137-8}}) Folio Society edition (2011)
			* ''Dry Store Room no.1'', HarperCollins (2008, {{ISBN\|978-0-307-27552-3}})
			* ''Survivors : The animals and Plants that Time has Left Behind'', HarperCollins (2011), published as Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms (2012) in the US.
			* ''The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood'', William Collins (2016, {{ISBN\|978-0-00-810466-5}})

			He has also penned humorous titles under two pseudonyms.<ref>{{cite web\|url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mcbhp\|title = The Life Scientific, Richard Fortey in conversation with Jim Al-Khalili\|publisher= BBC Radio 4\|access-date = 28 October 2014}}</ref>

			* ''The Roderick Masters Book of Money Making Schemes, or How to Become Enormously Wealthy with Virtually no Effort'', published anonymously Rutledge & Kegan Paul Ltd (1981, {{ISBN\|0-7100-0973-9}})
			* ''Bindweed's Bestseller'' Ed. Heather & David Godwin, Jackie & Richard Fortey, Pan Books (1982, {{ISBN\|0 330 26933 X}})

			==Awards and honours==
			For his academic research he has won the ] of the ], the Linnean Medal for Zoology of the Linnean Society of London, the Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the R. C. Moore Medal of the SEPM, the T. N. George Medal of the ]; in 1997 he was elected as a fellow of the ].

			His popular science writing has earned him the Natural World Book of the Year award (1994) for ''The Hidden Landscape''; the ] for science writing (2003) and is the 2006 holder of the Royal Society's ] for the public communication of science. In 1998, ''Life: An Unauthorised Biography'' was shortlisted for the ], in 2001, ''Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution'' was shortlisted the ], the UK's most prestigious non-fiction award and in 2005 ''Earth: An Intimate History'' was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Aventis prize for science books. ''Life: an Unauthorised Biography'' was listed as one of ten Books of the Year by '']''.
			He has also turned his pen to writing dinosaur poems for children and even a spoof book on the ].

			Fortey was elected president of the ] for its bicentennial year of 2007 and was recently awarded honorary degrees by the ]; the ]; the ] and ]. He has also been president of the Palaeontological Association and Palaeontographical Society; in 2009 was elected a Fellow of the ].<ref>{{cite web\|url = http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows\|title = Royal Society of Literature All Fellows\|publisher = Royal Society of Literature\|access-date = 8 August 2010\|url-status = dead\|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100305070326/http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows\|archive-date = 5 March 2010}}</ref>
			Fortey has also served on the councils of the Systematics Association; the Royal Society; the Palaeontographical Society (ex president); the British Mycological Society (vice president), and on the Stratigraphy Committee of the Geological Society of London; has served on the editorial boards of the ''Terra Nova''; the ''Palaeontographica Italiana''; the ''Historical Biology''; the ''Biological Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'' and the ''Biology Letters''.

			==References==
			{{reflist}}

			==External links==
			*{{IMDb name\|1889994}}
			* by ] of the book '']'', by Richard Fortey, '']''

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Latest revision as of 15:02, 8 October 2024

British paleontologist

Richard Alan ForteyOBE FRS FRSL
Fortey in 2014
Born	(1946-02-15) 15 February 1946 (age 78)
Awards	Frink Medal (2000) Fellow of the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize (2006) Linnean Medal (2006)
Scientific career
Fields	Paleontology
Institutions	University of Cambridge Natural History Museum

Website	www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/staff-directory/palaeontology/cv-5469.html

Richard Alan Fortey (born 15 February 1946 in London) is a British palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007.

Early life and education

Fortey was educated at Ealing Grammar School for Boys and King's College, Cambridge, where he read Natural Sciences specialising in geology. He received a PhD and DSc from the University of Cambridge.

Career

Fortey has had a long career as a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London; his research interests include above all, trilobites: at the age of 14, he discovered his first trilobite, sparking a passionate interest that later became a career. He has named numerous trilobite species and still continues his research despite having retired from the Museum.

He studies trilobites and graptolites, especially those from the Ordovician and their systematics, evolution and modes of life; he is also involved in research on Ordovician palaeogeography and correlation; arthropod evolution, especially the origin of major groups and the relationships between divergence times, as revealed by molecular evidence and the fossil record. His scientific output includes over 250 papers on trilobites, Ordovician stratigraphy and palaeogeography.

He is the author of popular science books on a range of subjects including geology, palaeontology, evolution and natural history. Since 2012, he has also been a television presenter appearing on BBC Four presenting natural history programmes; was Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the University of Bristol 2002 and visiting professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford 1999–2009.

Television

Fortey has appeared in several of David Attenborough's programmes, including the second episode of David Attenborough's Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives in 1989, as well as First Life in 2010, travelling with the presenter to the Atlas mountains to find and film trilobite fossils. He contributed to the speculative Discovery Channel documentary series The Future Is Wild.

In 2012, Fortey presented the BBC Four series Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures, which took a global look at modern-day species whose ancestors survived mass extinction events in the Earth's history, while in 2013 he presented the BBC Four programme The Secret Life of Rock Pools, which aired on 16 April 2013.

In 2014, Fortey presented the BBC Four three part series Fossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures, followed by The Magic of Mushrooms, in which he showed that fungi had close but still poorly understood inter-relationships with plants and animals including man. In 2016, he presented the BBC Four programme Nature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution, a three part series on evolution on islands.

He appeared on BBC Two's "University Challenge – The Professionals" in 2004, as a member of the Palaeontological Association team, who beat the Eden Project.

Honours

Fortey was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to palaeontology and geology.

Books

A Curious Boy, William Collins (2021, ISBN 978-0-00-832396-7)
Fossils: The Key to the Past, Natural History Museum (1982, fifth edition 2015)
The Hidden Landscape, Jonathan Cape (1993, ISBN 0-224-03651-3), Bodley Head (revised edition 2010)
Life: An Unauthorised Biography. A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth, HarperCollins (1997, ISBN 0-00-638420-X) Folio Society edition (2008)
Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution, HarperCollins (2000, ISBN 0-00-655138-6)
The Earth: An Intimate History, HarperCollins (2004, ISBN 0-00-655137-8) Folio Society edition (2011)
Dry Store Room no.1, HarperCollins (2008, ISBN 978-0-307-27552-3)
Survivors : The animals and Plants that Time has Left Behind, HarperCollins (2011), published as Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms (2012) in the US.
The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood, William Collins (2016, ISBN 978-0-00-810466-5)

He has also penned humorous titles under two pseudonyms.

The Roderick Masters Book of Money Making Schemes, or How to Become Enormously Wealthy with Virtually no Effort, published anonymously Rutledge & Kegan Paul Ltd (1981, ISBN 0-7100-0973-9)
Bindweed's Bestseller Ed. Heather & David Godwin, Jackie & Richard Fortey, Pan Books (1982, ISBN 0 330 26933 X)

Awards and honours

For his academic research he has won the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London, the Linnean Medal for Zoology of the Linnean Society of London, the Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the R. C. Moore Medal of the SEPM, the T. N. George Medal of the Geological Society of Glasgow; in 1997 he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society.

His popular science writing has earned him the Natural World Book of the Year award (1994) for The Hidden Landscape; the Lewis Thomas Prize for science writing (2003) and is the 2006 holder of the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Prize for the public communication of science. In 1998, Life: An Unauthorised Biography was shortlisted for the Rhône-Poulenc Prize, in 2001, Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution was shortlisted the Samuel Johnson Prize, the UK's most prestigious non-fiction award and in 2005 Earth: An Intimate History was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Aventis prize for science books. Life: an Unauthorised Biography was listed as one of ten Books of the Year by The New York Times. He has also turned his pen to writing dinosaur poems for children and even a spoof book on the Rubik's Cube.

Fortey was elected president of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007 and was recently awarded honorary degrees by the University of St Andrews; the Open University; the Birmingham University and Leicester University. He has also been president of the Palaeontological Association and Palaeontographical Society; in 2009 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Fortey has also served on the councils of the Systematics Association; the Royal Society; the Palaeontographical Society (ex president); the British Mycological Society (vice president), and on the Stratigraphy Committee of the Geological Society of London; has served on the editorial boards of the Terra Nova; the Palaeontographica Italiana; the Historical Biology; the Biological Proceedings of the Royal Society of London and the Biology Letters.

References

^ "Richard Alan FORTEY". Debrett's People of Today. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
"Prof Richard Fortey". Natural History Museum. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
"BBC Four – Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures".
"BBC Four – the Secret Life of Rockpools".
"BBC Four – Fossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures".
"BBC Four – Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution".
"No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N13.
"The Life Scientific, Richard Fortey in conversation with Jim Al-Khalili". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
"Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2010.

External links

Richard Fortey at IMDb
Review by Tim Radford of the book Earth: An Intimate History, by Richard Fortey, The Guardian

v t e Presidents of the Geological Society of London
19th century	George Bellas Greenough Henry Grey Bennet William Blake John MacCulloch George Bellas Greenough Earl Compton William Babington William Buckland John Bostock William Fitton Adam Sedgwick Roderick Murchison George Bellas Greenough Charles Lyell William Whewell William Buckland Roderick Murchison Henry Warburton Leonard Horner Henry De la Beche William Hopkins Edward Forbes William Hamilton Daniel Sharpe Joseph Ellison Portlock John Phillips Leonard Horner Andrew Crombie Ramsay William Hamilton Warington Wilkinson Smyth Thomas Henry Huxley Joseph Prestwich George Douglas Campbell John Evans Peter Martin Duncan Henry Clifton Sorby Robert Etheridge John Whitaker Hulke Thomas Bonney John Wesley Judd William Blanford Archibald Geikie Wilfred Hudleston Henry Woodward Henry Hicks William Whitaker
20th century	Jethro Teall Charles Lapworth John Marr Archibald Geikie William Sollas William Watts Aubrey Strahan Arthur Smith Woodward Alfred Harker George Lamplugh Richard Oldham Albert Seward John Evans Francis Bather John Gregory Edmund Garwood Thomas Holland John Green Owen Thomas Jones Henry Hurd Swinnerton Percy Boswell Herbert Leader Hawkins William Fearnsides Arthur Trueman Herbert Harold Read Cecil Tilley Owen Thomas Jones George Lees William King Walter Campbell Smith Leonard Hawkes James Stubblefield Sydney Hollingworth Oliver Bulman Frederick Shotton Kingsley Dunham Neville George William Alexander Deer Thomas Westoll Percy Kent Wallace Pitcher Percival Allen Howel Francis Janet Watson Charles Holland Bernard Leake Derek Blundell Anthony Harris Charles Curtis Steve Sparks Richard Hardman Robin Cocks
21st century	Ronald Oxburgh Mark Moody-Stuart Peter Styles Richard Fortey Lynne Frostick

v t e Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1997
Fellows	Mike Bate J. Michael Brady Michael Bulmer John Burland Richard Dickinson Chambers Colin W. Clark David Clary Laurence Eaves Richard Fortey David Garner Douglas Gough John Hinch Julian Jack Paul Gordon Jarvis Charles K. Kao Barry Keverne Philip Kocienski Peter B. Kronheimer Philippa Marrack James R. Maxwell Tim Mitchison Richard G. Morris Chris Perrins George Pickett George Poste Kenneth Reid Alan Rickinson Leo Sachs Giacinto Scoles James Scott Wilson Sibbett Bernard Silverman Richard Sykes Richard E. Taylor Neil Trudinger Robin Weiss Simon White Alan Windle Richard D. Wood Graham C. Wood
Foreign	Thomas Eisner Walter Jakob Gehring Roy J. Glauber Martin David Kruskal George Andrew Olah Stanley B. Prusiner

Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1997

Fellows

Foreign

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