astronomy

M. Paul Smith

M. Paul Smith is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand M. Paul Smith rather than just read about it. In short: M. Paul Smith is a British palaeontologist, head of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and professor in Kellogg College.

Key takeaways

M. Paul Smith belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect M. Paul Smith to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of M. Paul Smith from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

M. Paul Smith is a British palaeontologist, head of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and professor in Kellogg College. Previously he was Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham, head of the university's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Director of its Lapworth Museum of Geology. He received his BSc from the University of Leicester and his PhD from the University of Nottingham. Smith's research primarily has focused on the conodont palaeobiology and the early Palaeozoic radiation of vertebrates. He is known for discovering that conodont teeth were made of bone cells, such as are found only in vertebrates. This dated the origin of the vertebrates to 515 million years before the present, 40 million years earlier than had been previously thought. He was also involved in the geological mapping of northeastern Greenland. He is Chair of the Publications Board of The Palaeontological Association, and joint editor of the Systematics Association special volume, Donoghue, Philip C. J., and M. Paul Smith. Telling the Evolutionary Time: Molecular Clocks and the Fossil Record. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-415-27524-8.

Publications Books

Philip C. J. Donoghue, M. Paul Smith. Telling the evolutionary time: Molecular Clocks and the Fossil Record. CRC Press, 2004. A. K. Higgins, Jane A. Gilotti, M. Paul Smith. The Greenland Caledonides: Evolution of the Northeast Margin of Laurentia, Geological Society of America, 2008. Select peer-reviewed journal articles

Sansom, I. J., Smith, M. P., Armstrong, H. A. and Smith, M. M. 1992. "Presence of the earliest vertebrate hard tissues in conodonts." Science 256: 1308–1311. Cited 60 times according to Scopus. Sansom, I. J., Smith, M. P. and Smith, M. M. 1994. "Dentine in conodonts." Nature 368: 591. Cited 30 times in Scopus. Sansom, I. J., Smith, M. P. and Smith, M. M. 1996. "Scales of thelodont and shark-like fishes from the Ordovician." Nature 379: 628–630.Cited 543 times according to Scopus/ Smith, M. P., Sansom, I. J. and Repetski, J. E. 1996. "Histology of the first fish." Nature 380: 702–704. Cited 26 times according to Scopus 729–730. Thomas, A.T., Smith, M.P. 1998 "Terebellid polychaete burrows from the lower Palaeozoic" Palaeontology 41 (2), pp. 317–333 Cited 7 times according to Scopus Donoghue, P.C.J., Smith, M.P. 2001 "The anatomy of Turinia pagei (Powrie), and the phylogenetic status of the Thelodonti" Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences 92 (1), pp. 15–37. Cited 35 times according to Scopus

References

External links Official website at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with M. Paul Smith

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what M. Paul Smith claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to M. Paul Smith before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about M. Paul Smith ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of M. Paul Smith

In research: M. Paul Smith appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses M. Paul Smith in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: M. Paul Smith is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alumni of the University of Leicester, Alumni of the University of Nottingham, British palaeontologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for M. Paul Smith outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study M. Paul Smith in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what M. Paul Smith means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain M. Paul Smith out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is M. Paul Smith in simple terms?

M. Paul Smith is a British palaeontologist, head of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and professor in Kellogg College.

Why does M. Paul Smith matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study M. Paul Smith?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on M. Paul Smith.