| Alan Feduccia is a paleornithologist and S. K. Henniger Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His areas of research include avian phylogeny and origins, and the evolutionary history of the paleognathous palate. Feduccia has authored two popular works, The Age of Birds (1980) and The Origin and Evolution of Birds (1996, 1999), detailing his advocacy of "thecodont" origin for Aves. Feduccia's work has been sharply criticized for its vitriolic and often unwarranted attacks on the theropod origin hypothesis, and Feduccia is held in little regard amongst dinosaur paleontologists. Nevertheless, Feduccia has carried out some fascinating and careful research, notable examples being 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. In recent years Feduccia has concentrated extensively on investigating the digital identity and manal homologies of birds and theropods, producing conclusive evidence that the manus of birds develops from the second, third and fourth anlagen, which Feduccia and several of his colleagues have argued equates the digits of birds to II, III, and IV as opposed to I, II, and III. JGK |