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] 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.
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