John Paxton (ichthyologist)

John Richard Paxton was born in 1938^[5] and grew up in Los Angeles, California.^[1] He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Southern California, beginning with a BA in Zoology (1960) and an MSc in Biology (1965).^[1] His master's research investigated the ecology and vertical distribution of lanternfishes (family Myctophidae) in a deep-sea basin off southern California.^[2] Paxton completed his PhD under supervisor Jay Savage, on the osteology and evolutionary history of lanternfishes, and graduated in 1968.^[1][2][6]

Paxton spent most of his career at the Australian Museum in Sydney, Australia.^[7] He arrived in February 1968 as the museum's Curator of Fishes.^[5][2] Over the next 30 years, Paxton increased the size of the Australian Museum's fish collection from 80,000 specimens to more than 1 million.^[1][8] This created the third-largest marine fish collection in the world, and the largest in Australia.^[8] Paxton attributes the growth of the fish collection to a number of factors, including increases in personnel, new collecting techniques, increased exploratory fishing by fisheries vessels, and a more efficient collections registration system.^[7] In 1997, the Australian Museum fish collection included more than 450,000 registered juvenile or adult specimens and more than 500,000 larval specimens.^[5]

In 1981, Paxton and colleague Doug Hoese founded the Indo-Pacific Fish Conference, which has since run every four years.^[9] Paxton retired in 1998,^[1][4] but remained active at the museum as a research fellow (1998–2006), senior research fellow (2006–07) and senior fellow (2007–present).^[7]

Paxton is a founding member of the Australian Society for Fish Biology, and a frequent attendee of the society's annual conferences.^[1] He served as the society's second President from 1976 to 1977,^[10] and was made an honorary life member in 1991.^[1] In 1997, Paxton was awarded the K. Radway Allen Award for his contributions to Australian fish research.^[1]

Paxton taught an ichthyology course at Macquarie University in the 1970s, and supervised one honours, three MSc and four PhD students.^[1] He has published more than 100 scientific papers, as well as two editions of the major reference text, Encyclopaedia of Fishes.^[1] As of 2013, he had described 16 new species and nine new genera.^[1]

As of 2013, he had described 16 new species and nine new genera.^[1]

• See Category:Taxa named by John Richard Paxton

Eighteen species and one genus have been named in his honour.^[1]

• Acanthistius paxtoni Hutchins & Kuiter, 1982^[11]

• Paxton's tilefish Branchiostegus paxtoni Dooley & Kailola, 1988. is one of them.^[12]

• Careproctus paxtoni Stein, Chernova & Andriashev 2001^[13]

• Conocara paxtoni Sazonov, Williams & Kobyliansky 2009^[14]

• Corythoichthys paxtoni' Dawson, 1977, commonly known as Paxton's pipefish, is a species of marine fish of the family Syngnathidae. It is endemic to the Coral Sea, being found in the Great Barrier Reef, the Chesterfield Islands, and New Caledonia.^[15]

• Eustomias paxtoni Clarke 2001^[16]

• Gigantactis paxtoni Bertelsen, Pietsch & Lavenberg 1981^[17]

• Nettenchelys paxtoni Karmovskaya 1999^[18]

• Ostracoberyx paxtoni Quéro & Ozouf-Costaz 1991^[19]

• Photonectes paxtoni Flynn & Klepadlo 2012^[16]

• Polyipnus paxtoni Harold 1989^[20]

• Setipinna paxtoni Wongratana 1987^[21]

• Torquigener paxtoni Hardy 1983^[22]

• Ventrifossa paxtoni Iwamoto & A. Williams, 1999 (Thinbarbel whiptail)^[23]

• Ventrifossa johnboborum Iwamoto, 1982 (Snoutscale whiptail)^[23]