World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Earth Science

D-Index
58
Citations
9094
World Ranking
2214
National Ranking
237

Biology and Biochemistry

D-Index
63
Citations
12092
World Ranking
10385
National Ranking
791

Overview

Roger B. J. Benson is affiliated with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Their research primarily focuses on paleontology and related fields, contributing extensively to the understanding of evolutionary biology, fossil records, and biodiversity patterns through geological time.

The scientist has published numerous papers in notable venues, with frequent contributions to journals such as MorphoSource Media, Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Current Biology, and Nature.

Their recent papers include:

  • The spatial structure of Phanerozoic marine animal diversity, 2020, Science
  • Enigmatic dinosaur precursors bridge the gap to the origin of Pterosauria, 2020, Nature
  • Biodiversity across space and time in the fossil record, 2021, Current Biology
  • Evidence from South Africa for a protracted end-Permian extinction on land, 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • The apparent exponential radiation of Phanerozoic land vertebrates is an artefact of spatial sampling biases, 2020, Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

They often collaborate with other researchers, with frequent co-authors including Jonah N. Choiniere, Vincent Fernández, David P. Ford, Elizabeth Griffiths, and Richard J. Butler. These collaborations have resulted in a substantial body of work advancing the fields of paleontology and evolutionary studies.

The main areas of their scientific inquiry cover a variety of related subfields, with an emphasis on:

  • Paleontology
  • Nature and Landscape Conservation
  • Geometry and Topology
  • Epidemiology
  • Global and Planetary Change

The focus topics of their research further include:

  • Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Morphological variations and asymmetry
  • Shoulder and Clavicle Injuries
  • Amphibian and Reptile Biology
  • Ichthyology and Marine Biology
  • Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils

Best Publications

  • Rates of dinosaur body mass evolution indicate 170 million years of sustained ecological innovation on the avian stem lineage.

    Roger B. J. Benson;Nicolás E. Campione;Matthew T. Carrano;Philip D. Mannion

  • The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda)

    Matthew T. Carrano;Roger B. J. Benson;Scott D. Sampson

  • The latitudinal biodiversity gradient through deep time

    Philip D. Mannion;Paul Upchurch;Roger B.J. Benson;Anjali Goswami

  • Faunal turnover of marine tetrapods during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition.

    Roger B. J. Benson;Patrick S. Druckenmiller

  • A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda)

    Emanuel Tschopp;Emanuel Tschopp;Octávio Mateus;Roger B.J. Benson

  • Mesozoic marine tetrapod diversity: mass extinctions and temporal heterogeneity in geological megabiases affecting vertebrates

    Roger B. J. Benson;Richard J. Butler;Johan Lindgren;Adam S. Smith

  • Global interrelationships of Plesiosauria (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) and the pivotal role of taxon sampling in determining the outcome of phylogenetic analyses

    Hilary F. Ketchum;Hilary F. Ketchum;Roger B. J. Benson;Roger B. J. Benson

  • A description of Megalosaurus bucklandii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bathonian of the UK and the relationships of Middle Jurassic theropods

    Roger B. J. Benson;Roger B. J. Benson

  • Climate constrains the evolutionary history and biodiversity of crocodylians

    Philip D. Mannion;Roger B. J. Benson;Matthew T. Carrano;Jonathan P. Tennant

  • Air-filled postcranial bones in theropod dinosaurs: physiological implications and the ‘reptile’–bird transition

    Roger B. J. Benson;Richard J. Butler;Matthew T. Carrano;Patrick M. O'Connor

  • Cope's rule and the adaptive landscape of dinosaur body size evolution

    Roger B. J. Benson;Gene Hunt;Matthew T. Carrano;Nicolas E. Campione

  • Open data and digital morphology

    Thomas G. Davies;Imran A. Rahman;Stephan Lautenschlager;Stephan Lautenschlager;John A. Cunningham

  • Rise of dinosaurs reveals major body-size transitions are driven by passive processes of trait evolution

    Roland B. Sookias;Richard J. Butler;Roger B. J. Benson;Roger B. J. Benson

  • The spatial structure of Phanerozoic marine animal diversity

    Roger Close;Roger B J Benson;Erin Saupe;Matthew Clapham

  • High Diversity, Low Disparity and Small Body Size in Plesiosaurs (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary

    Roger B. J. Benson;Roger B. J. Benson;Mark Evans;Patrick S. Druckenmiller

  • Extinction of fish-shaped marine reptiles associated with reduced evolutionary rates and global environmental volatility.

    Valentin Fischer;Nathalie Bardet;Roger B. J. Benson;Maxim S. Arkhangelsky;Maxim S. Arkhangelsky

  • The osteology of Neovenator salerii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Wealden Group (Barremian) of the Isle of Wight

    Stephen Brusatte;Rbj Benson;S Hutt

  • Geological and anthropogenic controls on the sampling of the terrestrial fossil record: a case study from the Dinosauria

    P. Upchurch;P. D. Mannion;R. B. J. Benson;R. J. Butler

  • Sea level, dinosaur diversity and sampling biases: investigating the 'common cause' hypothesis in the terrestrial realm.

    Richard J. Butler;Roger B. J. Benson;Matthew T. Carrano;Philip D. Mannion

  • The phylogeny of early amniotes and the affinities of Parareptilia and Varanopidae.

    David P Ford;Roger B J Benson

  • Uncovering the diversification history of marine tetrapods: ecology influences the effect of geological sampling biases

    Roger B. J. Benson;Richard J. Butler

  • Evidence for a Mid-Jurassic Adaptive Radiation in Mammals

    Roger A. Close;Matt Friedman;Graeme T. Lloyd;Roger B.J. Benson

  • How do geological sampling biases affect studies of morphological evolution in deep time?: A case study of pterosaur (Reptilia: Archosauria) disparity

    Richard J. Butler;Stephen L. Brusatte;Stephen L. Brusatte;Brian Andres;Roger B. J. Benson

  • Enigmatic dinosaur precursors bridge the gap to the origin of Pterosauria

    Martin Daniel Ezcurra;Martin Daniel Ezcurra;Sterling J. Nesbitt;Mario Bronzati;Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia

Frequent Co-Authors

Richard J. Butler
Richard J. Butler University of Birmingham
Paul M. Barrett
Paul M. Barrett Natural History Museum
Stephen L. Brusatte
Stephen L. Brusatte University of Edinburgh
Philip D. Mannion
Philip D. Mannion University College London
Paul Upchurch
Paul Upchurch University College London
Thomas H. Rich
Thomas H. Rich Museums Victoria
Xing Xu
Xing Xu Chinese Academy of Sciences
Anjali Goswami
Anjali Goswami Natural History Museum
Mark A. Norell
Mark A. Norell American Museum of Natural History
Nathalie Bardet
Nathalie Bardet Université Paris Cité

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