Bearded ornithologists (6)

Cyril Alexander Walker (1939-2009) joined the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) in 1958, where he was to become an authority on fossil birds of the late Cretaceous and the Eocene period. He was appointed curator of fossil birds in 1972 and he is best remembered for his discovery of a new subclass of fossil birds, Enantiornithes (Nature 292: 51-53, 1981).

Dr Walker also developed an interest in fossil turtles, and discovered the earliest known herring (from the Cretaceous period), in Queensland. He regarded it as a part of the job to introduce colleagues to the delights of English beer.