Kevin Padian

From EvoWiki

Kevin Padian, of the University of California, Berkeley, is a dinosaur paleontologist. He studied pterosaur phylogeny under Ostrom, and in 1983 presented a significant body of research which largely revolutionized our understanding of Pterosauria. Padian's 1983 work argued for a terrestrial origin of flight amongst pterosaurs, although more recent data contradicts Padian's initial conclusions, and recent discoveries of a flat-footed Dimorphodon, quadrupedal trackways and uropatagial membrances clearly falsify the hypothesis. Padian is furthermore one of the principal researchers of theropod phylogenetics, reviewing in 1999 the phylogeny of Theropoda introduced by Sereno (1997, 1998) in an effort to more rigorously define the major theropod clades. Padian, as is the case with most dinosaur paleontologists, has staunchly defended a theropod origin of birds, and in conjunction with Jensen, of Brigham Young University, presented some of the first fossil data arguing a Jurassic derivation of Maniraptora (Padian & Jensen 1989).