Scott Cocker
Quaternary palaeoecology, ancient DNA, and Earth surface processes
About
I am an interdisciplinary Quaternary geoscientist who integrates palaeoecology, ancient DNA, and Earth surface processes to explore climate and environmental change. I completed my PhD in Beringian palaeoecology at the University of Alberta and I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Geological Sciences and Centre for Palaeogenetics at Stockholm University.
Publications
(1) Wanket, C., Cocker, SL., De Sanctis, B., Oliveira, M., Bond, J., Jensen, BJL., Froese, DG., and Shapiro, B. (2026). Continuity of eastern Beringian megafauna phylogenetic diversity following deposition of the Late Pleistocene Dawson tephra. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 58(1).
(2) Cocker, SL., Tirlea, D., Francis, E., Kuzmina, S., Zazula, GD., and Froese, DG. (2025). Latest Pleistocene (17,500 – 13,500 cal yr BP) Arctic ground squirrel (Sciuridae: Urocitellus parryii) middens record late persistence of steppe-tundra in central Yukon Territory. Quaternary Research, pp.1-19.
(3) Wanket, C., Kodama, S., Oppenheimer, J., Cocker, SL., Steigerwald, E., Froese, DG., Shapiro, B., Pico, T., and Farmer, J. (2025). Converging evidence constrains Late Pleistocene Bering Land Bridge history. Quaternary Science Advances, p.100292.
(4) Monteath, AJ., Edwards, ME., Froese, DG., Anderson L., Gaglioti, BV., Cocker, SL, Brigham-Grette, J. Wooller, MJ, Finney, B., and Abbott, MB. (2025). Late Quaternary environmental change in eastern Beringia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 368, p.109527.
(5) Cocker, SL., Proctor, HC., Galloway, TD., Miskelly, J., Jensen BJ., and Froese, DG. (2025). Pleistocene grasshoppers, fleas, thrips, and mites: rare and new records from Arctic ground squirrel middens in east Beringia in Yukon Territory, Canada. The Canadian Entomologist, 157, p.e21.
(6) Cocker, SL., Cannings, RA., and McKnight, TA. A Pleistocene Lasiopogon robber fly (Diptera: Asilidae) fossil from the Yukon Territory, Canada. (2025). The Canadian Entomologist, 157, p.e14.
(7) Cocker, SL., Zazula, GD., Hall, E., Jass, C., Storer, JE., and Froese, DG. (2024). Predation, reoccupation, cannibalism, and scavenging? Records of small mammals in Arctic ground squirrel middens from east Beringia. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 56(1), p.2428070.
(8) Murchie, TJ., Monteath, AJ., Mahoney, ME., Long, GS., Cocker, SL., Sadoway, T., Karpinski, E., Zazula, G., MacPhee, R., Froese, D., and Poinar, H. (2021). Collapse of the mammoth-steppe in central Yukon as revealed by ancient environmental DNA. Nature Communications 12, 7120
(9) Cocker, SL., Pisaric, MFJ., McCarthy, FMG., Vermaire, JC., Beaupre, P., and Cwynar., LC. (2021). Dung analysis of the East Milford mastodons: dietary and environmental reconstructions from central Nova Scotia at ~75 ka yr BP. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 58(10), pp. 1059-1072.
(10) McCarthy, FMG., Pilkington PM., Volik, O., Heyde, A., and Cocker, SL. (2020). Non-pollen Palynomorphs in Freshwater Sediments and their Paleolimnological Potential. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 511.