A world-renowned brachiopod expert with an unparalleled legacy of taxonomic work
Leonard Robert Morrison “Robin” Cocks was arguably the world’s most distinguished student of brachiopods, and his death on February 5 deprives the scientific world of a lifetime of expertise. During his many years at the Natural History Museum, Robin rose to become Keeper of Palaeontology (1986-1998). He never lost his enthusiasm for science, indeed, he was still working on new papers weeks before he died.
Left: Robin Cocks. Photo courtesy of Mark Cocks.
Brachiopod expert
Robin was educated at Felsted School before completing his National Service in Malaysia. After completing his geology degree at the University of Oxford, Robin completed a DPhil (1965) on Silurian rocks and fauna, supervised by Stuart McKerrow, who later became a friend and colleague. In the same year, Robin was employed by the British Museum (Natural History) (now the Natural History Museum) as Scientific Officer, studying the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic with Howard Brunton and Ellis Owen.
By the mid-1990s, Robin had become an expert on Ordovician and Silurian brachiopods, and eventually claimed to have named a new genus for every letter of the alphabet. His compass extended globally, from a secure base in the Silurian of Britain, to a series of papers on the Ordovician of Kazakhstan with long-term collaborator, Leonid Popov. Robin also became a central figure in the debate on the Silurian-Devonian boundary. A definitive volume of the
British Museum Bulletin, edited by Robin in 1990, helped secure the international retention of the British names of the chronostratigraphic Silurian subdivisions.
A theme of Robin’s research was palaeogeographical reconstruction using brachiopods and trilobites together to give new insights into the signatures of ancient continents and their margins. In the late 1990s, Robin worked with Trond Torsvik, whose computer modeling advanced palaeogeography understanding. The collaboration was summarised in a 2017 book that has already become indispensible to geologists globally. Robin also gathered specimens of the type species of brachiopod genera and made huge contributions to the
Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology on brachiopods.
Unequalled contributor
Robin Cocks served many academic societies and international committees. On the palaeontological front, he is the only person who has been president of all the appropriate British learned societies. Robin served as president of the Palaeontological Association (1986-1988), president of the Palaeontographical Society (1994-1998), president of the Geological Society of London (1998-2000), and president of the Geologists’ Association (2004-2006). Internationally, he was a voting member of the Silurian Subcommission of the International Union of Geological Sciences for many years and a Commissioner of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature for two decades (1982-2002).
Robin’s contributions were recognised by the Geological Society by the award of their Coke Medal in 1995, the Dumont Medal of Geologica Belgica in 2003, and the Lapworth Medal of the Palaeontological Association in 2010. He was awarded an OBE in 1999.
Devoted family man
Robin coped with health problems that might have deterred a lesser soul. Robin underwent successful treatment for a facial cancer in 1984, then a jawbone replacement in 2006. Unfortunately, the latter caused many secondary problems, including nerve damage and voice projection, all of which he ignored with great courage. Robin did not allow health impediments to interfere with his research, if anything, the brachiopods and palaeogeography kept him going. Away from work, Robin was a devoted family man. He is survived by his wife Elaine (nee Sturdy), three children, and eight grandchildren.
By Richard Fortey, Lars Holmer, and Leonid Popov
Original obituary:
Fortey, R., Holmer, L. & Popov, L. (2023) BrachNet*. Accessed at http://paleopolis.rediris.es/BrachNet/ANNONCES/OBITUARIES/Cocks.htm [08/08/2023]