John Alfred Talent

John Alfred Talent
Born(1932-10-18)18 October 1932
Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia
Died27 March 2024 (2024-03-28) (aged 91)
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
Known forRole in uncovering Himalayan fossil hoax
Devonian geology and life
AwardsEtheridge medal, 2020
Riversleigh medal
Scientific career
FieldsGeology
Palaeontology
InstitutionsDepartment of Mines, Melbourne, Australia; Institut royal des sciences naturelles, Brussels, Belgium (Research Associate), Division of Geological Sciences, California Institute of Technology (visiting Associate Professor); Dacca University (professor); Macquarie University (professor)
ThesisContributions to the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Silurian and Devonian of Gippsland (1959)
Doctoral advisorEdmund Dwen Gill

John Alfred Talent (18 October 1932 – 27 March 2024) was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist whose research and teaching career was spent largely at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He is remembered particularly for leading the effort in the 1980s and 1990s to expose the large body of fraudulent publications by Vishwa Jit Gupta of Panjab University, which is collectively known as the Himalayan fossil hoax.