Winston Ponder

Winston Ponder
Winston Ponder
Education	Doctor of Philosophy
Alma mater	University of Auckland ;
Employer	Australian Museum ;
Awards	Clarke Medal (2010); Hamilton Award (1968) ;

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

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]

Some Gastropod taxa named by Ponder

His zoological author abbreviation is Ponder.^[10] He has authored over 500 taxa.

Higher taxa

Subclass Eogastropoda Ponder & Lindberg, 1997
Order Sorbeoconcha Ponder & Lindberg, 1997
Suborder Hypsogastropoda Ponder & Lindberg, 1997

Superfamilies

Superfamily Glacidorboidea Ponder, 1986

Families

Eatoniellidae Ponder, 1965
Rastodentidae Ponder, 1966
Elachisinidae Ponder, 1985
Emblandidae Ponder, 1985
Epigridae Ponder, 1985
Amathinidae Ponder, 1987
Calopiidae Ponder, 1999

Subfamilies

Subfamily Pelycidiinae Ponder & Hall, 1983

Genera

Microestea Ponder, 1965
Rufodardanula Ponder, 1965
Rastodens Ponder, 1966
Rissolitorina Ponder, 1966
Tridentifera Ponder, 1966
Fictonoba Ponder, 1967
Pseudodiala Ponder, 1967
Pseudestea Ponder, 1967
Pseudoskenella Ponder, 1973
Lirobarleeia Ponder, 1983
Kutikina Ponder & Waterhouse, 1997 [1]
Kessneria Walker & Ponder, 2001

Taxa named after Ponder

Genera

Ponderia Hoaurt, 1986
Ponderconcha Clark, 2009^[11]

Species in temporal order

Aspella ponderi Radwin & D' Attilio, 1976
Heliacus cerdaleus ponderi Garrard, 1977
Limatula (Stabilima) ponderi Fleming, 1978
Echineulima ponderi Warén, 1980
Pisinna ponderi Palazzi, 1982
Notocrater ponderi B. A. Marshall, 1986
Oliva (Miniaceoliva) caerulea ponderi Petuch & Sargent, 1986
Sassia (Sassia) ponderi Beu, 1986
Tritonoharpa ponderi Beu & Maxwell, 1987
Favartia (Favartia) ponderi Myers & d'Attilio, 1989
Amalda (Alcospira) ponderi Ninomiya, 1991
Choristella ponderi McLean, 1992
Austrotrochaclis ponderi B. A. Marshall, 1995
Powellisetia ponderi Numanami, 1996
Fissidentalium ponderi Lamprell & Healy, 1998
Posticobia ponderi Clark, 2009
Amplirhagada ponderi Köhler, 2010

Publications

Scholia has a profile for Winston Ponder (Q456583).

Ponder W. F. & A. Warén (1988). "Classification of the Caenogastropoda and Heterostropha - A list of the family-group names and higher taxa". Malacological Review. Supll. (4): 288–328.
Clark S. A., Miller A. C. & Ponder W. F. (2003) Revision of the snail genus Austropyrgus (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae). 109 pp.
Ponder, W. F. (4 July 2003). "Monograph of the Australian Bithyniidae (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 230: 1–126. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.230.1.1. - There are 17 newly described species from the genus Gabbia.
Colgan D. J., Ponder W. F., Beacham E. & Macaranas J. (2006). "Molecular phylogenetics of Caenogastropoda (Gastropoda: Mollusca)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42(3): 717–737. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.10.009 PDF
Ponder W. & Lindberg D. R. (2008). Phylogeny and Evolution of the Mollusca. University of California Press, 469 pp. ISBN 978-0-520-25092-5.