Éric Buffetaut (born 19 November 1950) is a French
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
, author and researcher at the
Centre national de la recherche scientifique
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science
Basic research, also called pure research o ...
since 1976 where he is a Doctor of Science and Director of Research. Buffetaut is a specialist of fossil
archosaur
Archosauria () is a clade of diapsids, with birds and crocodilians as the only living representatives. Archosaurs are broadly classified as reptiles, in the cladistic sense of the term which includes birds. Extinct archosaurs include non-avian d ...
s, mainly dinosaurs and
pterosaur
Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...
s, and has published many books on paleontology. He is one of the major paleontologists to support the thesis of the fall of a meteorite as the main cause of the
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago. With the ...
.
Notable works
Buffetaut named and described the following species:
* ''
Archaeodontosaurus descouensi''
* ''
Euthecodon arambourgi''
* ''
Isanosaurus attavipachi''
* ''
Isalorhynchus genovefae''
* ''
Kinnareemimus khonkaenensis''
* ''
Normannognathus wellnhoferi
''Normannognathus'' is a genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-age Upper Jurassic Argiles d'Octeville Formation of France. Initially, ''Normannognathus'' was classified to the family Germanodactylidae, sister taxon to ''Germanodactylus'', ...
''
* ''
Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae''
* ''
Psittacosaurus sattayaraki''
* ''
Rhabdodon septimanicus
''Rhabdodon'' (meaning "fluted tooth") is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in Europe approximately 70-66 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous. It is similar in build to a very robust "hypsilophodont" (non-iguanodont ornithopod), thou ...
''
* ''
Siamamia naga''
* ''
Siamosaurus suteethorni''
* ''
Siamotyrannus isanensis''
* ''
Tarascosaurus salluvicus''
* ''
Tilemsisuchus lavocati''
* ''
Trematochampsa taqueti''
* ''
Variraptor mechinorum''
Buffetaut demonstrated in 1982 that
Dakosaurus
''Dakosaurus'' is an extinct genus of crocodylomorph within the family Metriorhynchidae that lived during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. It was large, with teeth that were serrated and compressed lateromedially (flattened from side to ...
and
Aggiosaurus are actually
Metriorhynchidae
Metriorhynchidae is an extinct family of specialized, aquatic metriorhynchoid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous period (Bajocian to early Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. The name Metriorhync ...
.
[Buffetaut E. 1982. ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis'' Ambayrac, 1913, from the Upper Jurassic of south-eastern France: A marine crocodilian, not a dinosaur. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte'' (8): 469-475.]
''
Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti'' was named in his honor.
Buffeataut worked mainly with Mesozoic reptiles including crocodylomorphs, pterosaurs and dinosaurs.
Selected publications
* ''Les Dinosaures''. Que sais-je ? n°2827, PUF, 1994
* ''Les Dinosaures de France'', avec Pascal Robin, BRGM Éditions 1995
* ''Histoire de la paléontologie''. Que sais-je ? n°2190, PUF, avril 1997
* ''Les Mondes disparus, atlas de la dérive des continents'', avec Jean Le Loeuff, Guy Le Roux, Berg International, 1998
* ''Dans les traces des dinosaures'', Les Éditions Pocket
* ''La Fin des dinosaures : comment les grandes extinctions ont façonné le monde vivant.'', Fayard, 2003
* ''Les Dinosaures''. Collection "Idées reçues n°123. Éditions Le Cavalier Bleu, 2006
* ''Les dinosaures sont-ils un échec de l'évolution ?''. Éditions du Pommier, 2008
* ''Que nous racontent les fossiles ?'', éditions du Pommier, 2009
* ''Sommes-nous tous voués à disparaître ? idées reçues sur l'extinction des espèces'', Éditions Le Cavalier Bleu, 2012,
* ''À la recherche des animaux mystérieux : idées reçues sur la cryptozoologie'', Le Cavalier Bleu éditions, 2016,
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffetaut, Eric
1950 births
Textbook writers
Living people
French paleontologists
People from Eure