Richard Fortey was a palaeontologist who studied the evolution of arthropods and had a particular interest in the long-extinct marine arthropods, trilobites - one of the earliest groups of arthropods in existence. Richard was also a well-known natural history television presenter and popular science author.
Arthropods are invertebrates with an external skeleton, a segmented body and jointed appendages. Diverse and widespread, trilobites were amongst the most successful of all early animals, roaming the oceans for over 270 million years before suffering a mass extinction. Due to their ancient demise, Richard learnt about trilobites from their fossilised remnants and his research significantly furthered our understanding of invertebrate evolution.
A talented science communicator, and winner of the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Prize, Richard appeared in many natural history television programmes for the BBC. In 2010, he travelled with David Attenborough to the Atlas Mountains to find trilobite fossils for BBC Two's First Life. In 1993, Richard's book The Hidden Landscape: Journey into the Geological Past was named the Natural World Book of the Year.
Professor Richard Fortey OBE FRS died on 7 March 2025.
Subject groups
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Earth and Environmental Sciences
Geology
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Patterns in Populations
Evolution
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Other
Public understanding of science
Awards
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Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture
On 'A natural history of scientists'.
