David William Steadman is a paleontologist and ornithologist, and serves as the curator of ornithology at the

Florida Museum of Natural History The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville. The main pub ...

at the University of Florida. His research has concentrated on the evolution,

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

, conservation, and extinction of tropical birds, particularly in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. He has also authored over 180 scientific publications. He has conducted a number of digs at prehistoric sites and uncovered widescale extinctions caused by humans in the early stages of colonisation. He has conducted several expeditions to the Galápagos Islands, and has described a number of extinct species of birds and more recently was involved in discovering that the

Solomon Islands frogmouth The Solomons frogmouth (''Rigidipenna inexpectata''), also known as the Cinnamon frogmouth or Solomon Islands frogmouth, is a bird in the frogmouth family. It was first described in 1901, but not recognized as a distinct species until 2007.Cleere ...

is a species (instead of a subspecies of the marbled frogmouth, as formerly believed). He worked extensively on Easter Island, carrying out the first systematic excavations of the island in order to identify the plants and animals that once lived there.University of Florida News (2007)
UF scientists discover new genus of frogmouth bird in Solomon Islands
Accessed 1 March 2008

Education

* Bachelor's degree in Biology from Edinboro State College in 1973. * Master's degree in Zoology from the University of Florida in 1975. * Doctorate in Geosciences from the University of Arizona in 1982.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American ornithologists University of Florida College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alumni University of Florida faculty {{US-ornithologist-stub