Alan Feduccia

Alan Feduccia is a paleornithologist, specializing in the origins and phylogeny of birds. He is the S. K. Henniger Professor at the University of North Carolina. Feduccia's authored works include The Age of Birds and The Origin and Evolution of Birds. Feduccia is best known for his view that birds have their origin not in the advanced theropods, the most widely-held view, but basally within the archosaurs.

Feduccia has authored two popular works, The Age of Birds (1980) and The Origin and Evolution of Birds (1996, 1999), detailing his advocacy of a basal archosaurian origin for Aves, that is a common descent of birds and theropods as opposed to a direct descent from advanced theropods, the currently accepted theory. notable examples of his work include his isolation of the structure of the stapes as a tool in deciphering the phylogeny of higher taxa within crown clade Aves, and his work on the early evolution of Neornithes.

Feduccia graduated with a B.S. from Louisiana State University, taking ornithological expeditions to Honduras, El Salvador and Peru. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. (1969) from the University of Michigan. His career, 1973-2007 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has focused on evolutionary biology, vertebrate history and morphogenesis, and tempo and mode of the Tertiary vertebrate radiation. His early ‘70’s work produced the first comprehensive view of land bird evolution, and fossil discoveries first illustrated mosaicism in early Tertiary birds, eventually leading to his ‘Big Bang’ explosive Tertiary evolution model (Science ’95; Trends in Ecology and Evolution, ‘03). Feduccia is renowned for writing the first modern syntheses of avian evolution. Comments on The Age of Birds (Harvard Univ. Press ’80), included: "a revelation of clarity and synthesis . . . science writing at its best," and it was termed "definitive" by the NY Times. The Origin and Evolution of Birds (Yale Univ. Press ’96, ’99, lead science book), termed by Ernst Mayr as "the foundation from which all future investigations of avian relationships will start,” was winner of the Association of American Publishers ‘96 award for Excellence in Biology. The book was called a masterpiece both technically and artistically, and Witmer (Science) noted that, “it will remain the premier document on early evolution of birds for years to come.” Feduccia’s recent research in developmental biology has identified for the first time the pentadactyl hand of birds (Science, ’97; Naturwissenschaften, Science,’02; a problem dating to 1820). He has appeared frequently on national TV and radio, including NPR, Voice of America, BBC, CNN, ABC (Australia), NHK (Japan) and McNeil/Lehrer Report, and is a popular university lecturer. Feduccia served as Chair of the Department of Biology at Chapel Hill from 1997-2002, and prior to that was Chair of the Division of Natural Sciences. He is an elected Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In recent years Feduccia has become well-known for his opposition to the currently popular dinosaurian origin of birds hypothesis, particularly the ground-up or cursorial origin of flight, and the hypothesis of a very late origin of birds directly from dromaeosaurid theropods. He has preferred a hypothesis of an earlier, common origin of birds and theropods and a trees-down or arboreal origin of flight. He has identified the first digit of birds for the first time in ostrich embryos, lending support to the bird hand being composed of digits II, III and IV. Theropod dinosaurs have a tridactyl hand composed of digits I, II and III.