Joel Cracraft

Last updated

Joel Cracraft
Born (1942-07-31) July 31, 1942 (age 81) [1]
NationalityAmerican
Education University of Oklahoma, B.S., 1964
Louisiana State University, M.S., 1966
Columbia University Ph.D. (1969)
Scientific career
Fields Paleontology
Taxonomy
Thesis Functional Morphology of Locomotion in Birds  (1969)

Joel Lester Cracraft (born July 31, 1942), is an American paleontologist and ornithologist. [2] He received a PhD in 1969 from Columbia University (Functional Morphology of Locomotion in Birds). [2]

Contents

His research interests include: theory and methods of comparative biology, evolutionary theory, biological diversification, systematics, the evolution of morphological systems, historical biogeography, molecular systematics and evolution. [1]

From 1970 he has been a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; from 1970 to 1992, full professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago; from 1993 to 1994, acting director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History; from 1992, adjunct professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; from 1997 adjunct professor at Columbia University; from 1992 curator at American Museum of Natural History; and from 2002 Lamont Curator of Birds at American Museum of Natural History. [1]

Taxa authored

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pelecaniformes</span> Order of birds

The Pelecaniformes are an order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. As traditionally—but erroneously—defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Hence, they were formerly also known by such names as totipalmates or steganopodes. Most have a bare throat patch, and the nostrils have evolved into dysfunctional slits, forcing them to breathe through their mouths. They also have a pectinate nail on their longest toe. This is shaped like a comb and is used to brush out and separate their feathers. They feed on fish, squid, or similar marine life. Nesting is colonial, but individual birds are monogamous. The young are altricial, hatching from the egg helpless and naked in most. They lack a brood patch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ovenbird (family)</span> Large family of small suboscine passerine birds

Ovenbirds or furnariids are a large family of small suboscine passerine birds found from Mexico and Central to southern South America. They form the family Furnariidae. This is a large family containing around 315 species and 70 genera. The ovenbird, which breeds in North America, is not a furnariid – rather it is a distantly related bird of the wood warbler family, Parulidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodcreeper</span> Subfamily of birds

The woodcreepers (Dendrocolaptinae) comprise a subfamily of suboscine passerine birds endemic to the Neotropics. They have traditionally been considered a distinct family Dendrocolaptidae, but most authorities now place them as a subfamily of the ovenbirds (Furnariidae). They superficially resemble the Old World treecreepers, but they are unrelated and the similarities are due to convergent evolution. The subfamily contains 63 species in 16 genera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyranni</span> Suborder of birds

The Tyranni (suboscines) are a suborder of passerine birds that includes more than 1,000 species, the large majority of which are South American. It is named after the type genus Tyrannus. These have a different anatomy of the syrinx musculature than the oscines, hence the common name of suboscines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outgroup (cladistics)</span>

In cladistics or phylogenetics, an outgroup is a more distantly related group of organisms that serves as a reference group when determining the evolutionary relationships of the ingroup, the set of organisms under study, and is distinct from sociological outgroups. The outgroup is used as a point of comparison for the ingroup and specifically allows for the phylogeny to be rooted. Because the polarity (direction) of character change can be determined only on a rooted phylogeny, the choice of outgroup is essential for understanding the evolution of traits along a phylogeny.

<i>Xenops</i> Genus of birds

Xenops is a genus in the bird family Furnariidae, the ovenbirds. The genus comprises four species of xenops, all of which are found in Mexico, Central America and South America, particularly in tropical rain forests.

<i>Malia grata</i> Species of bird

The malia is a medium-sized babbler-like passerine. It has an olive-green plumage, yellowish head and chest, and pinkish-brown bill. The young is duller than the adult. It is the only member of the genus Malia.

<i>Automolus</i> Genus of birds

Automolus is a genus of bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spot-throated woodcreeper</span> Species of bird

The spot-throated woodcreeper is a species of bird in subfamily Dendrocolaptinae of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela, and possibly Suriname.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-browed spinetail</span> Species of bird

The white-browed spinetail is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

<i>Hylocitrea</i> Genus of birds

The hylocitrea, also known as the yellow-flanked whistler or olive-flanked whistler, is a species of bird that is endemic to montane forests on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. It is monotypic within the genus Hylocitrea, and has traditionally been considered a member of the family Pachycephalidae, but recent genetic evidence suggests it should be placed in a monotypic subfamily of the family Bombycillidae, or even its own family, Hylocitreidae. A 2019 study found it to be a sister group to a clade containing the hypocolius (Hypocoliidae) and the extinct Hawaiian honeyeaters (Mohoidae), with the clade containing all three being a sister group to the silky-flycatchers (Ptiliogonatidae). The divergences forming these families occurred in the early Miocene, about 20-23 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey-cheeked tit-babbler</span> Species of bird

The grey-cheeked tit-babbler is a species of bird in the family Timaliidae. It is endemic to Java.

<i>Thripophaga</i> Genus of birds

Thripophaga is a genus of birds that popularly are known as softtails. They are members of the ovenbird family, Furnariidae. They are found in wooded and shrubby habitats, sometimes near water, in South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tityridae</span> Family of birds

Tityridae is family of suboscine passerine birds found in forest and woodland in the Neotropics. The 45 species in this family were formerly spread over the families Tyrannidae, Pipridae and Cotingidae. As yet, no widely accepted common name exists for the family, although tityras and allies and tityras, mourners and allies have been used. They are small to medium-sized birds. Under current classification, the family ranges in size from the buff-throated purpletuft, at 9.5 cm (3.7 in) and 10 grams, to the masked tityra, at up to 24 cm (9.5 in) and 88 grams. Most have relatively short tails and large heads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neoaves</span> Clade of birds

Neoaves is a clade that consists of all modern birds with the exception of Palaeognathae and Galloanserae. Almost 95% of the roughly 10,000 known species of extant birds belong to the Neoaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Falconiformes</span> Order of birds

The order Falconiformes is represented by the extant family Falconidae and a handful of enigmatic Paleogene species. Traditionally, the other bird of prey families Cathartidae, Sagittariidae (secretarybird), Pandionidae (ospreys), Accipitridae (hawks) were classified in Falconiformes. A variety of comparative genome analysis published since 2008, however, found that falcons are part of a clade of birds called Australaves, which also includes seriemas, parrots and passerines. Within Australaves falcons are more closely related to the parrot-passerine clade (Psittacopasserae), which together they form the clade Eufalconimorphae. The hawks and vultures occupy a basal branch in the clade Afroaves in their own clade Accipitrimorphae, closer to owls and woodpeckers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strisores</span> Clade of birds

Strisores, sometimes called nightbirds, is a clade of birds that includes the living families and orders Caprimulgidae, Nyctibiidae (potoos), Steatornithidae (oilbirds), Podargidae (frogmouths), Apodiformes, as well as the Aegotheliformes (owlet-nightjars) whose distinctness was only recently realized. The Apodiformes and the Aegotheliformes form the Daedalornithes.

<i>Ceratopipra</i> Genus of birds

Ceratopipra is a genus of passerine birds in the family Pipridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danthonioideae</span> Subfamily of plants

Danthonioideae is a mainly southern hemisphere subfamily of grasses, containing the single tribe Danthonieae and one unplaced genus, with altogether roughly 300 species. It includes herbaceous to partially woody perennial or annual (less common) grasses that grow in open grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands. It belongs to the PACMAD clade of grasses, but unlike some other lineages in that clade, grasses in the Danthonioideae exclusively use the C3 photosynthetic pathway. Its sister group is the subfamily Chloridoideae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fluvicolinae</span> Subfamily of birds

Fluvicolinae is a subfamily of passerine birds in the family Tyrannidae, encompassing species widely distributed across the Americas.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Joel Cracraft: Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Joel L. Cracraft". AMNH. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  3. Derryberry, E.; Claramunt, S.; Chesser, R.T.; Aleixo, A.; Cracraft, J.; Moyle, R.G.; Brumfield, R.T. (2010). "Certhiasomus, a new genus of woodcreeper (Aves: Passeriformes: Dendrocolaptidae)". Zootaxa. 2416: 44–50. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2416.1.2. ISSN   1175-5326. S2CID   83158075. (PDF) [ permanent dead link ]
  4. Moyle, R.G.; Chesser, R.T.; Brumfield, R.T.; Tello, J.G.; Marchese, D.J.; Cracraft, J. (2009). "Phylogeny and phylogenetic classification of the antbirds, ovenbirds, woodcreepers, and allies (Aves: Passeriformes: infraorder Furnariides)". Cladistics. 25 (4): 386–405. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2009.00259.x . ISSN   0748-3007. PMID   34879609. S2CID   35771385. (PDF) [ permanent dead link ]