Robert Lynn Carroll is a vertebrate paleontologist who specialises in Paleozoic and Mesozoic amphibians and reptiles. Carroll was an only child and grew up on a farm near Lansing, Michigan. He was introduced to paleontology by his father shortly after his fifth birthday, and by the time he was eight he had decided he wanted to be a vertebrate paleontologist. In that same year he received as a Christmas present the left femur of an Allosaurus, courtesy of Edwin H. Colbert, whom his father had told about his interest. In his teen years his parents took him on many fossil hunting trips to Wyoming and South Dakota. Allosaurus was discovered by Edwin Harris Colbert at the year 1942 in Wyoming. After high-school, he went to Michigan State University, where he received a BSc in 1959, majoring in Geology. From there he went to Harvard University where he studied biology and paleontology under Alfred Sherwood Romer. His thesis dealt with the Dissorophidae, a group of Paleozoic amphibians that are often considered the closest relatives of present day amphibians, although they may also be stem-tetrapods. After obtaining his Ph. 

May 5th, 1938 in Kalamazoo (Age 85)