Professor Richard Butler PhD

Richard is a vertebrate palaeontologist with expertise in the systematics, evolution and biogeography of late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic reptiles. His research addresses major patterns and drivers of biodiversity change through deep time, particularly as exemplified by four-limbed vertebrates (tetrapods), over the last 375 million years. He is also interested in the origin and dramatic evolutionary radiation of dinosaurs and closely related fossil groups in the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction, the largest extinction event in the history of life on Earth. In addition to research, he acts as Director of Research for the College of Life & Environmental Sciences.

• 2022–. Director of Research & Knowledge Transfer, College of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham.
• 2020–2022. Director of Global Engagement, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham.
• 2017–. Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Birmingham.
• 2015–2017. Senior Birmingham Fellow, University of Birmingham.
• 2013–2018. Academic Keeper of the Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham.
• 2013–2015. Birmingham Fellow, University of Birmingham
• 2011–2013. Junior Research Group Leader, Emmy Noether Programme (DFG), GeoBio-Center, LMU, Munich, Germany. 
• 2009–2011. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship. Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany
• 2006–2009. NERC Postdoctoral Researcher. Natural History Museum London. 

Recent publications

Article

Meade, LE, Butler, RJ, Jones, MEH & Fraser, NC 2024, 'A new procolophonid with complex dentition from the Late Triassic of southwest England', Papers in Palaeontology, vol. 10, no. 6, e1605. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1605

Edgar, K, Butler, R, Larwood, J & Smith, J 2024, 'Determining the relative scientific and cultural “value” of the UK’s in-situ dinosaur track sites', Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.

Smyth, RSH, Breithaupt, BH, Butler, RJ, Falkingham, PL & Unwin, DM 2024, 'Hand and foot morphology maps invasion of terrestrial environments by pterosaurs in the mid-Mesozoic', Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014

Marsden, MK, Gunn, J, Maidment, SCR, Nichols, G, Wheeley, JR, Russell, CE, Boomer, I, Stukins, S & Butler, RJ 2024, 'Palaeoenvironment and taphonomy of the Hypsilophodon Bed, Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation, Isle of Wight', Journal of the Geological Society. https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2024-046

Schnetz, L, Dunne, EM, Feichtinger, I, Butler, RJ, Coates, MI & Sansom, IJ 2024, 'Rise and diversification of chondrichthyans in the Paleozoic', Paleobiology, pp. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2024.1

Butler, RJ, Edgar, KM, Haller, L, Meade, LE, Jones, HT, Hill, O, Scriven, S & Reedman, C 2024, 'Sauropod dinosaur tracks from the Purbeck Group (Early Cretaceous) of Spyway Quarry, Dorset, UK', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 11, no. 7, 240583. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240583

Spiekman, SNF, Butler, RJ & Maidment, SCR 2024, 'The postcranial anatomy and osteohistology of Terrestrisuchus gracilis (Archosauria, Crocodylomorpha) from the Late Triassic of Wales', Papers in Palaeontology, vol. 10, no. 4, e1577. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1577

Schnetz, L, Butler, R, Coates, MI & Sansom, I 2024, 'The skeletal completeness of the Palaeozoic chondrichthyan fossil record', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 11, no. 1, 231451. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231451

Ezcurra, MD, Bandyopadhyay, S, Sengupta, DP, Sen, K, Sennikov, AG, Sookias, RB, Nesbitt, SJ & Butler, RJ 2023, 'A new archosauriform species from the Panchet Formation of India and the diversification of Proterosuchidae after the end-Permian mass extinction', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 10, no. 10, 230387. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230387

Spiekman, SNF, Fernandez, V, Butler, R, Dollman, KN & Maidment, S 2023, 'A taxonomic revision and cranial description of Terrestrisuchus gracilis (Archosauria, Crocodylomorpha) from the Late Triassic of Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry (southern Wales)', Papers in Palaeontology, vol. 9, no. 6, e1534.

Dunne, E, Farnsworth, A, Benson, RBJ, Godoy, P, Greene, S, Valdes, PJ, Lunt, DJ & Butler, R 2023, 'Climatic controls on the ecological ascendancy of dinosaurs', Current Biology, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 206-214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.11.064

Benevento, G, Benson, RBJ, Close, R & Butler, R 2023, 'Early Cenozoic increases in mammal diversity cannot be explained solely by expansion into larger body sizes', Palaeontology, vol. 66, no. 3, e12653. https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12653

Fawcett, MJ, Lautenschlager, S, Bestwick, J & Butler, RJ 2023, 'Functional morphology of the Triassic apex predator Saurosuchus galilei (Pseudosuchia: Loricata) and convergence with a post‐Triassic theropod dinosaur', The Anatomical Record. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25299

Butler, R, Meade, L, Cleary, T, McWhirter, K, Brown, E, Kemp, T, Benito, J & Fraser, N 2023, 'Hwiccewyrm trispiculum gen. et sp. nov., a new leptopleuronine procolophonid from the Late Triassic of southwest England', The Anatomical Record. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25316

Dunne, E, Thompson, S, Butler, R, Rosindell, J & Close, R 2023, 'Mechanistic neutral models show that sampling biases drive the apparent explosion of early tetrapod diversity', Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 1480-1489. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02128-3

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