Ferdinand Richters

Ferdinand Richters (1 May 1849, Hamburg — 3 July 1914) was a German zoologist. Richters was the curator of Crustacea at the Naturmuseum Senckenberg from 1878 until his death in 1914.

He studied sciences at the Universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, receiving his doctorate in 1873 with a thesis on phyllosoma. As a student he had as instructors, Friedrich Wöhler, Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen. In 1873/74 he worked as an assistant in the zoological institute at Göttingen, afterwards relocating to Frankfurt am Main, where he found employment at the Senckenberg Institute. In 1886, he was named vice-director of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, where three years later, he was appointed first director.

While on a scientific excursion to the Taunus Mountains in 1900, he developed an interest in tardigrades, subsequently publishing numerous papers on the phylum. He is credited with the discovery of many tardigrade species, including a number from the genus Diphascon.