author
E. D. (Edward Drinker) Cope
1840–1897
A brilliant and fiercely driven naturalist, he helped turn fossil hunting in the American West into one of the great scientific dramas of the 19th century. His work ranged far beyond dinosaurs, touching everything from reptiles and fishes to big questions about evolution.
1 Audiobook
Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and Essays
by Thomas Henry Huxley, George F. (George Frederick) Barker, E. D. (Edward Drinker) Cope, James Hutchison Stirling, John Tyndall
About the author
Born in Philadelphia in 1840, Edward Drinker Cope grew up in a wealthy Quaker family and showed an early gift for natural history. He published scientific work while still very young and went on to become an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist.
Cope became one of the most prolific scientists of his era, describing a huge number of fossil vertebrates from North America. He is still widely remembered for his role in the famous "Bone Wars," the intense rivalry with Othniel Charles Marsh that pushed both men into a frantic race to find, name, and interpret prehistoric life.
For all the drama around his career, Cope's influence was lasting. His studies helped shape early American paleontology, and his interests in anatomy, classification, and evolution gave his work an unusually broad reach across the life sciences.