Michael James Benton (born 8 April 1956[2]) is a British palaeontologist, and emeritus professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol.

[13] He has led in integrating data from living and fossil organisms to generate phylogenies – solutions to the question of how major groups originated and diversified through time.

[1][15][16][17][18] Benton has also advised on many media productions including BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs and was a programme consultant for Paleoworld on Discovery Science.

He also contributed to the 2002 BBC programme The Day The Earth Nearly Died, which featured scientists and dealt with the mysteries of the Permian extinction.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to palaeontology and community engagement.