Mike Archer (paleontologist)

Michael Archer
Born1945 (age 80–81)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
SpouseSuzanne Hand
Children2 daughters

Michael Archer AM, FAA, Dist FRSN (born 1945) is an Australian paleontologist specialising in Australian vertebrates.[1] He is a professor at the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales. His previous appointments include Director of the Australian Museum 1999–2004[2] and Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales 2004–2009.[3]

Education and career

Archer was born in Sydney but raised in the United States and studied at Princeton University. From 1972 to 1978, he was the curator of mammals at the Queensland Museum.[4] Since 1983, he has been involved with the exploration of the Riversleigh fossil site in Queensland.[5]

He is regularly engages in active debates with creationists.

During his time as director of the Australian Museum, he was the initiator of attempts to clone the Thylacine, an animal that went extinct in 1936.[6][7] Archer has stated that he is obsessed with bringing the thylacine back to life via cloning. He has said that his obsession is going to push the research further and further until he and his team will have their first living thylacine clone.[8]

In 2011, Archer published an article asserting that a vegetarian diet causes more suffering and deaths of animals than an omnivorous diet based on sustainable husbandry.[9]

Archer is married to the paleontologist Suzanne Hand, with whom he has two daughters.

Below is a list of taxa that Archer has contributed to naming:

Year Taxon Authors
2018 Vulcanops jennyworthyae gen. et sp. nov. Hand, Beck, Archer, Simmons, Gunnell, Scofield, Tennyson, De Pietri, Salisbury, & Worthy[10]
2015 Ganguroo robustifer sp. nov. Cooke, Travouillon, Archer, & Hand[11]
2013 Obdurodon tharalkooschild sp. nov. Pian, Archer, & Hand[12]
2011 Naraboryctes philcreaseri gen. et sp. nov. Archer, Beck, Gott, Hand, Godthelp, & Black[13]
1999 Djarthia murgonensis gen. et sp. nov. Godthelp, Wroe, & Archer[14]
1995 Kollikodon ritchiei gen. et sp. nov. Flannery, Archer, Rich, & Jones[15]
1985 Steropodon galmani gen. et sp. nov. Archer, Flennery, Ritchie, & Molnar[16]
1979 Namilamadeta snideri gen. et sp. nov. Rich & Archer[17]
1978 Propleopus chillagoensis sp. nov. Archer, Bartholomai, & Marshall[18]

Honours

Publications

  • Archer, M. (Ed.) (1982). Carnivorous Marsupials. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1982. ISBN 978-0-9599951-3-8 (2 volumes)
  • Archer, M. and Clayton, C. (Eds.) (1984). Vertebrate Zoogeography & Evolution in Australasia: Animals in Space & Time. Hesperian Press. ISBN 978-0-85905-036-4
  • Archer, M. and Flannery, T.F. with Grigg, G.C. (1985) The Kangaroo. Kevin Weldon Press. ISBN 978-0-949708-22-9
  • Archer, M., Hand, S. and Godthelp, H. (1986). Uncovering Australia's Dreamtime. Surrey Beatty & Sons ISBN 0-949324-07-8
  • Archer, M. (Ed.) (1987). Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons in association with the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. ISBN 0-949324-05-1
  • Cronin, L. (Ed.) (1987). Koala: Australia's Endearing Marsupial. Reed Books Pty, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7301-0158-1 (text by Archer et al.)
  • Long, J.A., Archer, M., Flannery, T. and Hand, S. (2002). Prehistoric mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One hundred million years of evolution. University of NSW Press. ISBN 978-0-86840-435-6
  • Archer, M., Hand, S. and Godthelp, H. (2000). Australia's lost world: Prehistoric animals of Riversleigh. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-33914-0
  • Archer, Michael; Beale, Bob (2004). Going Native: Living in the Australian Environment. Sydney: Hodder Headline. p. 358. ISBN 0-7336-1522-8.

References

  1. ^ Archer, Michael (1945 - ) The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
  2. ^ "Curators and Directors of the Australian Museum". Australian Museum. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
  3. ^ "Professor Mike Archer - Profile". UNSW Faculty of Science. Archived from the original on 22 July 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
  4. ^ Prof. Mike Archer (Australia) Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Honorary Associates of Rationalist International, retrieved 2009-08-08
  5. ^ Riversleigh fossils Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 2009-08-08
  6. ^ With a Tiger in the Tank World Press Review, published August 2002, retrieved 8 August 2009
  7. ^ True or False? Extinction Is Forever Smithsonian magazine, June 2003, retrieved 2009-08-08
  8. ^ Video on YouTube
  9. ^ Archer, Michael (15 December 2011). "Ordering the vegetarian meal? There's more animal blood on your hands". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2017. But if you want to minimise animal suffering and promote more sustainable agriculture, adopting a vegetarian diet might be the worst possible thing you could do.
  10. ^ Hand, Suzanne Joan; Beck, Robin M. D.; Archer, Michael; Simmons, Nancy B.; Gunnell, Gregg F.; Scofield, Richard Paul; Tennyson, Alan J. D.; De Pietri, Vanesa L.; Salisbury, Steven W.; Worthy, Trevor Henry (10 January 2018). "A new, large-bodied omnivorous bat (Noctilionoidea: Mystacinidae) reveals lost morphological and ecological diversity since the Miocene in New Zealand". Scientific Reports. 8 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-017-18403-w. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5762892. PMID 29321543. Retrieved 20 April 2026 – via Nature Publishing Group.
  11. ^ Cooke, Bernard N.; Travouillon, Kenny J.; Archer, Michael; Hand, Suzanne Joan (4 July 2015). "Ganguroo robustiter , sp. nov. (Macropodoidea, Marsupialia), a middle to early late Miocene basal macropodid from Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 35 (4) e956879. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.956879. ISSN 0272-4634. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
  12. ^ Pian, Rebecca; Archer, Michael; Hand, Suzanne Joan (5 November 2013). "A new, giant platypus, Obdurodon tharalkooschild , sp. nov. (Monotremata, Ornithorhynchidae), from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (6): 1255–1259. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.782876. ISSN 0272-4634. Retrieved 18 April 2026 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
  13. ^ Archer, Michael; Beck, Robin; Gott, Miranda; Hand, Suzanne Joan; Godthelp, Henk; Black, Karen (22 May 2011). "Australia's first fossil marsupial mole (Notoryctemorphia) resolves controversies about their evolution and palaeoenvironmental origins". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 278 (1711): 1498–1506. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1943. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 3081751. PMID 21047857. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via The Royal Society Publishing.
  14. ^ Godthelp, Henk; Wroe, Stephen; Archer, Michael (September 1999). "A New Marsupial from the Early Eocene Tingamarra Local Fauna of Murgon, Southeastern Queensland: A Prototypical Australian Marsupial?". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 6 (3): 289–313. doi:10.1023/A:1020517808869. ISSN 1064-7554. Retrieved 7 April 2026 – via Springer Nature Link.
  15. ^ Flannery, Timothy F.; Archer, Michael; Rich, Thomas H.; Jones, Robert (5 October 1995). "A new family of monotremes feom the Creataceous of Australia". Nature. 377 (6548): 418–420. doi:10.1038/377418a0. ISSN 0028-0836. Retrieved 9 April 2026 – via Nature Publishing Group.
  16. ^ Archer, Michael; Flannery, Timothy F.; Ritchie, Alex; Molnar, Ralph E. (28 November 1985). "First Mesozoic mammal from Australia—an early Cretaceous monotreme". Nature. 318 (6044): 363–366. doi:10.1038/318363a0. ISSN 0028-0836. Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via Nature Publishing Group.
  17. ^ Rich, Thomas H. V.; Archer, Michael (January 1979). "Namilamadeta snideri , a new diprotodontan (Marsupialia, Vombatoidea) from the medial Miocene of South Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 3 (3): 197–208. doi:10.1080/03115517908527793. ISSN 0311-5518. Retrieved 11 April 2026 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
  18. ^ Archer, Michael; Bartholomai, Alan; Marshall, Larry G. (1 December 1978). "'Propleopus chillagoensis', a new North Queensland species of extinct giant rat-kangaroo (Macropodidae: Potoroinae)". Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. 39: 55–61. doi:10.3316/informit.T2024091000008990655202930. Retrieved 7 April 2026 – via Informit.
  19. ^ The Clarke Medal and Clarke Memorial Lectureship Archived 2010-03-14 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ ANZAAS> Mueller Medal Recipients (1904-2005) archive.is Retrieved 12 February 2025.
  21. ^ Australia Day 2008 Honours List Archived 2009-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ "Fellows of RSNSW". RSNSW. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  23. ^ Carroll, Lucy (15 Oct 2019) Society awards top honour to UNSW palaeontologist. Newsroom. University of New South Wales
  24. ^ 'Hooked on discovery': legend of palaeontology awarded highest society honours. Newsroom. University of New South Wales
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