Winston Ponder

Last updated

Winston Ponder
Born1941 (age 8283)
Education Doctor of Philosophy
Alma mater
Employer
Awards
  • Clarke Medal (2010)
  • Hamilton Award (1968)
  • Member of the Order of Australia (For significant service to scientific research, particularly invertebrate and conservation biology., Dr Winston Frank Ponder, 2024)

Winston Frank Ponder AM (born 1941) is a malacologist born and educated in New Zealand who has named and described many marine and freshwater animals, especially micromolluscs. [1]

Contents

Education and career

Ponder graduated with an MSc, PhD (1968) [2] and DSc from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He completed his Ph.D while working at the Dominion Museum [3] but by 1969 he had taken a position at the Australian Museum, [4] where he has remained.

Ponder was the principal research scientist in the malacology section of the Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia and helped to build up the museum's mollusc collection so that it became one of the most extensive of its kind in the world. Ponder retired from this post after a long career of more than forty years of research on molluscs, and is now an Honorary Fellow of the museum.

He has been the president of the Society of Australian Systematic Biologists, and was the managing editor of the journal Molluscan Research of the Malacological Society of Australasia. [5] for 8 years.

Early in his career, in 1964, he worked on Antarctic collections together with Richard Dell and Alan Beu, resulting in a major monograph on the Antarctic bivalves, chitons and scaphopods.

Ponder is the author of more than 300 research publications. Many of these are on the subjects of the freshwater molluscs of Australia, and on invertebrate conservation. One major contribution was a taxonomy of the Gastropoda, which he published together with David R. Lindberg in 1997. [6] This was the last major publication on the taxonomy of the Gastropoda that was based on the morphology of snails and slugs (their internal and external shapes and forms), and did not take into account any analysis of their DNA or RNA.

In 2008, again with David Lindberg, he edited the book "Phylogeny and Evolution of the Mollusca" [7] in which 36 experts provided an up-to-date review on the evolutionary history of the Mollusca, based on reinvestigation of morphological characters, molecular data and the fossil record.

Honours

In 2008 Ponder received the Australian Marine Sciences Association Silver Jubilee Award for a lifetime of achievement in research on marine molluscs. [8]

In 2009 he was awarded the Clarke Medal in recognition of his Zoological work by the Royal Society of New South Wales. [9]

Ponder was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to scientific research, particularly invertebrate and conservation biology". [10]

Some Gastropod taxa named by Ponder

His zoological author abbreviation is Ponder. [11] He has authored over 500 taxa.

Higher taxa

Superfamilies

Families

Subfamilies

Genera

Taxa named after Ponder

Genera

Species in temporal order

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heterobranchia</span> Clade of gastropods

Heterobranchia, the heterobranchs, is a taxonomic clade of snails and slugs, which includes marine, aquatic, and terrestrial gastropod molluscs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caenogastropoda</span> Clade of sea snails

Caenogastropoda is a taxonomic subclass of molluscs in the class Gastropoda. It is a large diverse group which are mostly sea snails and other marine gastropod mollusks, but also includes some freshwater snails and some land snails. The subclass is the most diverse and ecologically successful of the gastropods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypsogastropoda</span> Clade containing marine gastropods

Hypsogastropoda is a clade containing marine gastropods within the clade Caenogastropoda.

Sayellini is a taxonomic tribe of minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs, or micromollusks, in the very large family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies.

David R. Lindberg is an American malacologist and professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Curator for the University of California Museum of Paleontology and co-editor of the journal Molecular Systematics and Phylogeography of Mollusks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naticidae</span> Family of gastropods

Naticidae, common name moon snails or necklace shells, is a family of medium to large-sized predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Littorinimorpha. The shells of the species in this family are mostly globular in shape.

<i>Penion</i> Genus of gastropods

Penion is a genus of large marine snails, commonly known as siphon whelks, classified within the mollusc family Austrosiphonidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithoglyphidae</span> Family of gastropods

Lithoglyphidae is a family of small freshwater snails with gills and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks.

The taxonomy of the Gastropoda, as revised by Winston Ponder and David R. Lindberg in 1997, is an older taxonomy of the class Gastropoda, the class of molluscs consisting of all snails and slugs. The full name of the work in which this taxonomy was published is Towards a phylogeny of gastropod molluscs: an analysis using morphological characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vetigastropoda</span> Clade of sea snails

Vetigastropoda is a major taxonomic group of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that form a very ancient lineage. Taxonomically the Vetigastropoda are sometimes treated as an order, although they are treated as an unranked clade in Bouchet and Rocroi, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cerithioidea</span> Superfamily of gastropods

The Cerithioidea is a superfamily of marine, brackish water and freshwater gastropod containing more than 200 genera. The Cerithioidea are included unassigned in the subclass Caenogastropoda. The original name of this superfamily was Cerithiacea, in keeping with common superfamily endings at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ptenoglossa</span> Suborder of gastropods

The Ptenoglossa is an informal taxonomic group of sea snails. This group was considered paraphyletic or polyphyletic by Ponder and Lindberg (1997) in their classification of gastropod molluscs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seguenzioidea</span> Superfamily of gastropods

Seguenzioidea is a superfamily of minute to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personidae</span> Family of gastropods

The Personidae are a family of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the order Littorinimorpha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modulidae</span> Family of gastropods

Modulidae, common name modulids, is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cerithioidea.

Scaliolidae, common name scaliolids, is a family of minute sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs or micromollusks in the superfamily Cerithioidea, the ceriths and their allies.

<i>Austrotriton</i> Genus of gastropods

Austrotriton is a genus of medium-sized sea snails, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cymatiidae.

<i>Sassia</i> Genus of gastropods

Sassia is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cymatiidae.

William B. "Bill" Rudman is a malacologist from New Zealand and Australia. In particular he studies sea slugs, opisthobranch gastropod molluscs, and has named many species of nudibranchs.

References

  1. "Invertebrate Zoology - Scientific staff - Dr Winston Ponder". The Australian Museum. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  2. Ponder, W. (1968). Some Aspects of the Morphology and Relationships of Volutacean Gastropods (Doctoral thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland. hdl:2292/827.
  3. Ponder, W. F. (1968), Some Aspects of the Morphology and Relationships of Volutacean Gastropods (Doctoral thesis), ResearchSpace@Auckland, hdl:2292/827, Wikidata   Q112029984
  4. W. F. Ponder (June 1969). "Notes on two Neoleptonid bivalve molluscs". New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research. 3 (2): 262–272. doi:10.1080/00288330.1969.9515294. ISSN   0028-8330. Wikidata   Q99967683.
  5. Malacological Society of Australasia
  6. Ponder W. & Lindberg D. R. 1997. Towards a phylogeny of gastropod molluscs; an analysis using morphological characters. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 119: 83-265.
  7. Winston F. Ponder; David R. Lindberg, eds. (2008). Phylogeny and Evolution of the Mollusca. University of California Press. p. 488.
  8. Recognising research on molluscs
  9. "The Clarke Medal". The Royal Society of New South Wales . Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  10. "Dr Winston Frank Ponder". Australian Honours Search Facility. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  11. "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Austropyrgus abercrombiensis S. A. Clark, A. C. Miller & Ponder, 2003". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  12. "Genus: Ponderconcha".