Michael Benton

Michael Benton, Scottish-English paleontologist and academic

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Born: April 8, 1956
Age in 2026: 70
Zodiac sign: Aries
Birth year: 1956

About Michael Benton

Michael James Benton is a British palaeontologist, and professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. His published work has mostly concentrated on the evolution of Triassic reptiles but he has also worked on extinction events and faunal changes in the fossil record. Benton was educated at Robert Gordon's College, the University of Aberdeen and Newcastle University where he was awarded a PhD in 1981. Benton founded the Master of Science degree programme in Palaeobiology at Bristol in 1996, from which more than 300 students have graduated.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Michael Benton timeline

1981Benton was educated at Robert Gordon's College, the University of Aberdeen and Newcastle University where he was awarded a PhD in 1981.
1996Benton founded the Master of Science degree programme in Palaeobiology at Bristol in 1996, from which more than 300 students have graduated.

The world when Michael Benton was born

Michael Benton was born in 1956. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1956

#1 song"Heartbreak Hotel" – Elvis Presley
Top movieAround the World in 80 Days
Top TV showI Love Lucy
Best-selling bookPeyton Place – Grace Metalious

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentDon Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series
Top headlineElvis Presley takes America by storm
Technology milestoneFirst transatlantic telephone cable (TAT-1)
Defining fadElvis Presley mania
Notable inventionHard disk drive (IBM)
World population2.82 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
Also wonPhiladelphia Warriors (NBA)
U.S. population168.1M

1956 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Michael Benton's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1956	2026
Gas	$0.30	$3.45/gal
Average home	$11,700	$435,000
Average income	$6,500	$67,500
Minimum wage	$1.00	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.50	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	168.1M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.