Russell Coope, also Geoffrey Russell Coope and G. Russell Coope (1930 Cheshire, UK – 2011) was a Quaternary paleoentomologist and

neontologist Neontology is a part of biology that, in contrast to paleontology, deals with living (or, more generally, ''recent'') organisms. It is the study of extant taxa (singular: extant taxon): taxa (such as species, genera and families) with members st ...

and a

paleoclimatologist Paleoclimatology (British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to ...

specializing in the British

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. He was an expert and leader in the reconstruction of Quaternary paleoenvironmental conditions from fossil

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s. The relatively young age of his fossils allowed Coope to explore construction sites for fossils, in addition to geological field sites. Coope was an Honorary Professor of Quaternary Science and staff member at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

from 1955 to 1993. After retiring he continued working in his home laboratory and at Royal Holloway, University of London. Coope turned to beetles as a researcher subject while searching for fossil corals in

sediments revealed in a sand quarry being worked in the Chelford Sands. Many of the beetles he found were from sites around

Upton Warren Upton Warren is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district, in Worcestershire, England. The village is situated just off the A38 road between Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa, and on the River Salwarpe. In the 2001 census, the parish, whic ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, and he used these to show that past climate change had been rapid, data that were later confirmed by Greenland ice cores. ''

Quaternary International ''Quaternary International'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal on quaternary science published by Elsevier on behalf of the International Union for Quaternary Research. The journal was established in 1989 and covers full spectrum of the physic ...

'' in 2014 published an issued composed mostly of papers given in his honour in June 2012 at Royal Holloway.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coope, Russell Academics of the University of Birmingham 1930 births 2011 deaths British palaeontologists