User:Michael Jonathan Boyd

Hello!

My name is Michael Jonathan Boyd, addressed by most people as Mike. I am a vertebrate palaeontologist, who has done research on Carboniferous 'amphibians' and their palaeoecology, and is also interested in ichthyosaurs. I am, in addition, fascinated by prehistoric lithic technology. Most of my working life was spent in museums, including the Hancock Museum (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), Hull City Museums, and Burton Constable Hall. I am somewhat old-fashioned, in that I did not use a computer before middle-life or own a mobile 'phone until 10 years ago! Which is doubtless why I made such a cock-up of my first attempt at editing a Wikipedia entry. I would probably have felt more at ease in the 19th century! But the only reason I edited the Pteroplax entry was that it was a mere 'stub' and contained errors. My research M.Sc of 1978 dealt specifically with Pteroplax and I later published part of it. Other people have looked at the type-specimen in the course of research on related animals but, so far as I know, I am the only person to have devoted a study wholly to Pteroplax since the 19th century. It was, thus, not vanity that led me to edit the Wikipedia entry but a genuine desire to enhance it.