Herculano Marcos Ferraz de Alvarenga (born 7 November 1947) is a Brazilian ornithologist, paleontologist and physician, founder of the Taubaté Natural History Museum.
He went to São Paulo when he was 15 to study taxidermy and soon his stuffed specimens started to be exhibited in scientific expositions in high school.
[3] His interests in biology and anatomy led him to study medicine, specializing in orthopedy.
[3] After the description of Paraphysornis brasiliensis was published in 1982,[4] the fossil gained high notoriety in the scientific community.
[2] Currently, Alvarenga is the leading paleornithologist in Brazil, having described various fossil species, including taxa from the Paleocene (Itaboraí, Rio de Janeiro) such as Diogenornis and Paleopsilopterus, Oligocene/Miocene (Taubaté basin, São Paulo) such as Paraphysornis and Hoazinavis, and Pleistocene (Bahia and Minas Gerais), such as Pleistovultur and Wingegyps, in collaboration with a number of scientists.