Phillip A. Maxwell


Phillip Alan Maxwell, was a New Zealand palaeontologist and malacologist, who became known as an expert on early to middle Cenozoic mollusca during the latter 20th century.

Early life

Maxwell was born in Christchurch, attending Christ's College on a scholarship, later studying chemistry at Canterbury University. While completing his degree, Maxwell was inspired to study geology and paleontology after a field trip to Westland, winning the Sir Julius von Haast Prize for BSc in Geology. For his Master of Science, Maxwell mapped the geology of the Kaiwara Valley of North Canterbury, and for his PhD focused on studying cenozoic mollusca, especially the Eocene molluscs found at the Waihao River in South Canterbury, which won Maxwell the McKay Hammer Award of the Geological Society of New Zealand.

Career

After completing his master's degree, Maxwell began working for the New Zealand Geological Survey in Lower Hutt. Major publications of Maxwell's included his research into late Miocene mollusca of Stillwater Mudstone at Greymouth, and a major overview of New Zealand Cenozoic molluscan fauna in 1990, Cenozoic Mollusca of New Zealand, which won a DSIR Ministerial Award for Excellence in Scientific Research. A major work by Maxwell covering Eocene molluscs of the Waihaorunga Valley, covering more than 350 species, remains unpublished.
Maxwell moved to Waimate in 1990, and became a contract curator for Canterbury Museum. While Maxwell primarily focused on molluscs, his fieldwork led to discoveries outside of his field, including an archaeoceti skull Maxwell uncovered, and the holotype of Kaiika maxwelli, also known as Maxwell's penguin, which he discovered near the Waihao River in November 1998.
A significant amount of Maxwell's mollusc collection is held in the collections of Te Papa.

Personal life

Maxwell had four children together with his wife Sue. Maxwell's hobbies included folk music, succulents, stamp collecting and construction using Meccano.

Taxa identified by Maxwell

  • Gemmocolus
  • Glyphea christeyi
  • Itiscala
  • Maoraxidae
  • Pileolidae
  • Sphaerocinidae
  • Spinoseila
  • Tahuia
  • ''Zeatoma''

    Selected works

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