Richard Fortey

Richard Fortey
Fortey in 2014
Born
Richard Alan Fortey

(1946-02-15)15 February 1946
Ealing, London, England
Died7 March 2025(2025-03-07) (aged 79)
AwardsFrink Medal (2000)
Fellow of the Royal Society
Michael Faraday Prize (2006)
Linnean Medal (2006)
Scientific career
FieldsPaleontology
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Natural History Museum
ThesisStratigraphy, Palaeoecology and Trilobite Faunas of the Valhallfonna Formation NY Friesland, Spitsberge
Doctoral advisorHarry B. Whittington

Richard Alan Fortey (15 February 1946 – 7 March 2025) was a British palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007. As a paleontologist, he specialised on trilobites and other extinct arthropods, as well as the life and paleogeography of the Paleozoic era, particularly the Ordovician.