John Brian Richardson (1935–2021)

John Brian Richardson, one of the pioneers of Silurian–Devonian spore research, passed away on the 31st of December 2021 at the age of 85. He was one of the architects of the nomenclaturial and taxonomic system used to describe and classify Silurian and Devonian spores. Together with Colin McGregor, John developed a hugely influential dispersed spore-pollen biostratigraphical scheme for the Silurian and Devonian (Richardson and McGregor 1986). In a sustained collaboration with Dianne Edwards and others, John also added considerably to our understanding of early terrestrial plants by using in situ spores to integrate the early land plant megafossil and dispersed spore fossil records. A full listing of his publications is given in the Supplemental Data.