The New Student's Reference Work/Cope, Edward Drinker

E. D. COPE

Cope, Edward Drinker (1840-97), one of the most distinguished of American naturalists. He was of Quaker descent and was widely known in the field of comparative anatomy. For many years he was editor of the American Naturalist and professor in the University of Pennsylvania. He made extensive collections of the fossil vertebrates from the rocks of the western states, and filled his house in Philadelphia to overflowing with them. He prepared several monographs for the United States government. He was a voluminous writer, but most of his writings were technical. As examples of his many publications we mention only Origin of the Fittest and Tertiary Vertebrates of North America (1889). He died at Philadelphia on April 12, 1897.