Robert Joseph Gay Savage (2 July 1927 – 9 May 1998) was a British palaeontologist known as Britain's leading expert on fossil mammals.

He recalled a large rack of antlers of the extinct Irish elk mounted in the entrance hall of the family home, which colleague Michael Benton writes may have inspired Savage to pursue the study of fossil mammals.

Savage's other expeditions include field work in Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, Russia, Australia, and Venezuela.

In the 1970s he began work on the Isle of Skye, Scotland where he described the first Scottish mammal from the Mesozoic, Borealestes, and the tritylodontid Stereognathus hebridicus, both from the Middle Jurassic.

[3] Richard Leakey recalled he had "a superb sense of humour and was seldom without a twinkle in his eye that belied his rather severe exterior.