Charles Kimberlin Brain | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1931-05-07)7 May 1931 |
| Died | 7 June 2023(2023-06-07) (aged 92) Irene, Gauteng, South Africa |
| Other names | C. K. Brain Bob Brain |
| Education | Pretoria Boys High School |
| Alma mater | University of the Witwatersrand |
| Children | 4 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Palaeontology |
| Institutions | University of the Witwatersrand |
Charles Kimberlin Brain (7 May 1931 – 6 June 2023), also known asC. K. "Bob" Brain, was a South Africanpaleontologist who studied and taught African cavetaphonomy for more than fifty years.
Brain was born inSalisbury,Southern Rhodesia on 7 May 1931.[1] He was the son of theentomologist,Charles Kimberlin Brain, the Director of Agriculture of Southern Rhodesia, and Zoe Findlay.[2]
From 1965 to 1991, Brain directed theTransvaal Museum, which became one of the most scientifically productive institutions of its kind in Africa during his tenure.[citation needed]
During his years at the museum, Brain actively pursued his own research, which was A-rated by the Foundation for Research Development (now theNational Research Foundation of South Africa) from the inception of its evaluation system in 1984 until his retirement.
Brain planned and scripted the displays in the museum's "Life’s Genesis I" and "Life's Genesis 2" halls, which have been seen by several million visitors.
Very early in Brain's career,Robert Ardrey wrote of him:
[In 1958] I was spending a night in a South African village with a party of scientists. One in the party was Dr. C. K. Brain, an amazing young man from the Transvaal Museum.
Brain is a scientist's scientist, and I know of none so young on any continent who has acquired from achievements so varied a reputation quite so wide. He is a Rhodesian, from a family related to that ofEugène Marais. He has a long, distinguished face and his mode of expression, unlike my own, is as a rule one of long, distinguished silences. Brain was twenty-seven at the time, and had taken his doctorate in geology.
He had followed this with three fruitful years inanthropology, in which time he had furnished palaeontology with its only comprehensivegeological survey of all fiveaustralopithecine sites; had developed techniques ofancient dating never thought of before by anyone; and with his uncovering of primitive stonehandaxes at Sterkfontein had made a discovery ranked byDr. Kenneth P. Oakley of theBritish Museum as one of the anthropological milestones of the century."
— Robert Ardrey,African Genesis, p. 69, 1961.
Although Brain retired in 1996, he was active asCurator Emeritus at the Transvaal Museum, an Honorary Professor of Zoology at theUniversity of the Witwatersrand, an activeResearch Associate at theBernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Palaeo-Anthropology Scientific Trust (PAST). He was an active researcher of fossils of the earliest animals and was co-ordinating a renewed excavation initiative at theSwartkrans Cave. He was a consulting editor for theAnnals of the Eastern Cape Museums.[3]
In its 2006 Lifetime Achiever tribute to Brain, theNational Research Foundation of South Africa said:
Dr Brain was also personally involved and supervised a 30-year-long excavation of the Swartkrans Cave in theSterkfontein Valley (now theCradle of Humankind). This cave was the first to demonstrate the coexistence of robust ape men with early humans and produced more remains of robust ape men (Paranthropus) than any other site in the world.
His objective was to obtain a large and meticulously documented sample offossils and cultural objects from the complexstratigraphic units in the cave and to dotaphonomic interpretations on these, throwing light on how the animals (including thehominids) lived and died. His excavation produced a sample of 240,000 fossils from a very diversefauna. These emphasise the importance ofpredation to the evolution ofhuman intelligence and provided evidence for the earliest controlled use offire by humans nearly one million years ago.
For nearly ten years Dr Brain has been looking for evidence of the oldest known predators among fossils ofinvertebrates from 700 million year oldlimestones inNamibia. His finds show how the predatory process started in the animallineages."
— National Research Foundation of South Africa, Newsletter.[4]
Brain was invited participant at over thirty international conferences and symposia worldwide. He and his wife had four children.[citation needed] He died on 8 June 2023, at the age of 92.[5][6]
A species of legless lizard,Typhlosaurus braini, is named in his honour.[7]
In addition to other active memberships, Brain was a founding member of four societies:
(This list is very incomplete.)
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