Peter Barrett (geologist)
Peter John Barrett (born 11 August 1940) is a New Zealand geologist who came to prominence after discovering the first tetrapod fossils in Antarctica in 1967. Early life and family Barrett was born in Hamilton on 11 August 1940, and educated at Hamilton High School. He went on to study at Auckland University College from 1958 to 1962, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1961, and Master of Science in 1963. The title of his master's thesis was The Te Kuiti group in the Waitomo-Te Anga area : a study of structures, sedimentation and paleogeography of calcareous sediments. Barrett married Maxine Frances Stone in 1977; the couple had six children. Scientific career Barrett first went to Antarctica with the University of Wisconsin in 1962, but it was during his PhD with the Institute of Polar Studies at Ohio State University in 1966 and 1968 that Barrett discovered the early Triassic period tetrapod remains. His 1968 doctoral thesis at the Institute of Polar Studies had the title The post-glacial Permian and Triassic Beacon rocks in the Beardmore Glacier area, central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica. After finishing his PhD, he took up a postdoctoral fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington to run an Antarctic