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Joyce Richardson

Joyce Richardson
Born
Joyce Ravina Richards

(1923-07-14)14 July 1923
New Zealand
Died13 October 2019(2019-10-13) (aged 96)
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
Scientific career
FieldsPalaeontology
Institutions
ThesisThe cainozoic terebratuloid and terebratelloid brachiopoda of Australia (1958)

Joyce Ravina Richardson (née Richards; 14 July 1923 – 13 October 2019) was a New Zealand palaeontologist. She specialised in the study of brachiopods in both New Zealand and Australia.

Biography

Joyce Ravina Richards was born in New Zealand on 14 July 1923. She studied zoology at the University of Otago and won the Parker Memorial Prize in 1945.[1] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1946,[2] and a Master of Arts degree in 1949.[3]

In early 1949, she moved to Australia to take up a position at the University of Melbourne.[4] She completed a PhD there in 1958 for her thesis, The cainozoic terebratuloid and terebratelloid brachiopoda of Australia.[5]

She subsequently worked for the National Museum of Victoria, before returning to New Zealand to take up a position at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute.[6] In 1977, Richardson won a grant from National Geographic to undertake an expedition to study brachiopods in the waters surrounding Stewart Island. The team included divers and oceanographers, and spent eight days aboard the 76-foot Acheron. Specimens collected were provided to the Smithsonian Institution and other museums.[7][8]

Following her retirement, Richardson returned to Australia where she volunteered at the National Museum of Victoria and continued her work on brachiopods. She also served as honorary librarian for the Royal Society of Victoria.[6]

In her 1987 paper, "Brachiopods from Carbonate Sands of the Australian Shelf", Richardson described three new genera, Anakinetica, Aulites, and Parakinetica, and two new species, Parakinetica stewartii and Magadinella mineuri.[9] The last was named in honour of her colleague, Rudi Mineur.[10]

Richardson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria in 2004.[11] She died on 13 October 2019, at the age of 96.[12]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ "Graduates of the year". Otago Daily Times. No. 25839. 9 May 1945. Retrieved 14 February 2025 – via PapersPast.
  2. ^ "Graduation ceremony". Otago Daily Times. No. 26152. 15 May 1946. Retrieved 14 February 2025 – via PapersPast.
  3. ^ "Degrees conferred at graduation ceremony". Otago Daily Times. No. 27077. 11 May 1949. Retrieved 14 February 2025 – via PapersPast.
  4. ^ "Social evening". Otago Daily Times. No. 26998. 5 February 1949. p. 8. Retrieved 14 February 2025 – via PapersPast.
  5. ^ Richardson, Joyce R. (1958), The cainozoic terebratuloid and terebratelloid brachiopoda of Australia, retrieved 13 February 2025
  6. ^ a b Reddiex, Scott (March 2023). "An Open and Shut Case: Comprehensive Study on Brachiopods" (PDF). Science Victoria: 31 – via Royal Society of Victoria.
  7. ^ "Biologist wins American grant". The Press. 24 January 1977. Retrieved 13 February 2025 – via PapersPast.
  8. ^ "Brachiopods to be studied". The Press. 4 February 1977. Retrieved 13 February 2025 – via PapersPast.
  9. ^ Richardson, J. R. (1987). Brachiopods from carbonate sands of the Australian shelf. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ "Magadinella mineuri Richardson, 1987". WoRMS – World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  11. ^ "Elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Victoria". The Royal Society of Victoria. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
  12. ^ "Richardson — Joyce Ravina". My Tributes. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2025.