Edward Drinker Cope
Personal Information
Description
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, he distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science, publishing his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations. Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of U.S. Geological Survey teams.
Books
A preliminary report on the vertebrate paleontology of the Llano Estacado
Report upon the extinct vertebrata obtained in New Mexico by parties of the expedition of 1874
A digital reproduction of Cope's 1877 monograph, augmented with a multimedia suite of audio and video files, maps, and other documents that reinforce the monograph's importance as the foundation for vertebrate paleontology in New Mexico.