Richard Kenneth Dell

Richard Kenneth Dell (11 July 1920 – 6 March 2002) was a New Zealand malacologist.

Biography Dell was born in Auckland in 1920. As a young boy, he took an interest in shells, collecting them from the shores of Waitematā Harbour. He even managed to start a "museum" in his backyard. He also helped curate the Auckland War Memorial Museum shell collection.

Dell studied at Mount Albert Grammar School and later at the Auckland University College. He took a teacher’s course at Auckland Teachers' College, but World War II delayed his plans to become a teacher. He joined the New Zealand Artillery, serving on Nissan Island, the Solomon Islands, Southwest Asia, Egypt, and Italy. He later published several papers on the land snails he had collected in the Solomon Islands.

After the war, Dell was offered a job as malacologist at the Dominion Museum, where he started to standardise the cabinets and built up a collection of more than 30,000 specimens. In the meantime, he took a master's degree in Science at Victoria University College, with a pioneering thesis on cephalopods, octopuses and squid. His breakthrough came with the 1954 Chatham Islands expedition. The results were published in 1956 as The Archibenthal Mollusca of New Zealand, which was a major contribution to the knowledge of molluscan fauna in the bathyal zone of New Zealand waters. This publication earned him a Doctorate in Science in 1956.

Dell became first Assistant Director in 1961 and later in 1966, Director of the Dominion Museum, which would become the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. He retired in 1980, and started writing again. In 1990, he published his standard work Antarctic Mollusca with special reference to the Fauna of the Ross Sea. Dell published more than 150 papers on Mollusca (marine, terrestrial and freshwater), crabs and birds. He also made a major contribution to the Antarctic biogeography. In 1977, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, and in 1990 he received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. He was an honoured member of many scientific societies and committees. He won prizes and medals in New Zealand and abroad, including the Hamilton Prize in 1955, and the Hector Medal in 1965, both awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand. The Sea Snail Brookula delli Numanami, 1996 The Sa Snail Calliotropis delli Marshall, 1979 Carditella delli Crozier, 1966 Cuspidaria delli Knudsen, 1970 Cyclochlamys delli Dijkstra & Marshall, 2008 Cymonomus delli Griffin & Brown, 1975 The fish Genus Dellichthys Briggs, 1955 The Sea Snail Eatoniella delli Ponder, 1965 Gasparia delli (Forster, 1955) Limatula delli Fleming, 1978 Neilo delli B.A. Marshall, 1978 Nereis delli Knox, 1960 Nuculana delliana Huber, 2010 Ogyrides delli Yaldwyn, 1971 The Sea Snail Otukaia delli McLean & Andrade, 1982 The Sea Snail Penion benthicolus delli Powell, 1971 Platypodia delli Takeda & Webber, 2006 Podocatactes delli (Guinot, 1989) (basionym: Trachycarcinus delli Guinot, 1989) The Sea Snail Tractolira delli Leal & Harasewych, 2005 The Sea Snail Zeacolpus delli Marwick, 1957 : synonym of Stiracolpus pagoda (Reeve, 1849)