Malcolm Roy Clarke (24 October 1930 – 10 May 2013) was a British

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology clas ...

. He is most well known for his extensive work on

cephalopods A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...

and whales.

Career

Clarke did his

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

from 1948 to 1950. He founded the Cephalopod International Advisory Council, serving for a time as its Secretary and President.

Awards and honours

Clarke was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1981. The

deep-sea The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combination of low tempe ...

anglerfish The anglerfish are ray-finned fish in the order Lophiiformes (). Both the order's common name, common and scientific name comes from the characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified dorsal Fish fin#Ray-fins, fin ray acts as a Aggressiv ...

''Oneirodes clarkei'' Swinney & Pietsch, 1988 was named in his honor.Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names. http://www.tmbl.gu.se/libdb/taxon/personetymol/petymol.c.html

Personal life

Clarke married Dorothy Clara Knight in 1958 and had three sons and one daughter together.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Malcolm 1930 births 2013 deaths Marine zoologists Teuthologists British marine biologists British zoologists Fellows of the Royal Society