John Paxton (ichthyologist)

John Richard Paxton was born in 1938 and grew up in Los Angeles, California. == Career ==

Paxton spent most of his career at the Australian Museum in Sydney, Australia. He arrived in February 1968 as the museum's Curator of Fishes. 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. This created the third-largest marine fish collection in the world, and the largest in Australia. Paxton retired in 1998, but remained active at the museum as a research fellow (1998–2006), senior research fellow (2006–07) and senior fellow (2007–present). == Australian Society for Fish Biology ==

Paxton is a founding member of the Australian Society for Fish Biology, and a frequent attendee of the society's annual conferences. and was made an honorary life member in 1991. In 1997, Paxton was awarded the K. Radway Allen Award for his contributions to Australian fish research. == Legacy ==

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

As of 2013, he had described 16 new species and nine new genera. • See :Category:Taxa named by John Richard Paxton == Taxon named in his honor ==

Eighteen species and one genus have been named in his honour. • Paxton's tilefish Branchiostegus paxtoni Dooley & Kailola, 1988. is one of them. • Careproctus paxtoni Stein, Chernova & Andriashev 2001 • Conocara paxtoni Sazonov, Williams & Kobyliansky 2009 • ''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. • Eustomias paxtoni Clarke 2001 • Gigantactis paxtoni Bertelsen, Pietsch & Lavenberg 1981 • Nettenchelys paxtoni Karmovskaya 1999 • Ostracoberyx paxtoni Quéro & Ozouf-Costaz 1991 • Photonectes paxtoni Flynn & Klepadlo 2012 • Setipinna paxtoni Wongratana 1987 • Torquigener paxtoni Hardy 1983 • Ventrifossa paxtoni Iwamoto & A. Williams, 1999 (Thinbarbel whiptail) • Ventrifossa johnboborum Iwamoto, 1982 (Snoutscale whiptail) == Publications ==