Derek William Yalden (4 November 1940 – 5 February 2013) was an eminent British zoologist and academic. He was an Honorary Reader at the University of Manchester. After obtaining a 1st Class B.Sc. University College London in 1962, he completed his PhD on carpal bones in mammals at Royal Holloway College, under Prof. P. M. Butler, in 1965. He then worked as an Assistant Lecturer, and eventually Senior Lecturer, at the University of Manchester, School of Biological Sciences, teaching vertebrate zoology. He retired from there in 2005, after 40 years' service.