EDWARD DRINKER

See also:

• COPE
• COPE (M.E. cape, cope, from Med. Lat. capa, cappa)
• EDWARD DRINKER COPE (1840-1897)
• COPE, EDWARD MEREDITH (1818-1873)

COPE (1840-1897)  , American palaeontologist, descended from a Wiltshire family who emigrated about 1687, was born in Philadelphia on the 28th of July 184o . At an early age he became interested in natural history, and in 1859 communicated a paper on the Salamandridae to the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia . He was educated partly in the University of Pennsylvania, and after further study and travel in Europe was in 1865 appointed curator to the Academy of Natural Sciences, a post which he held till 1873 . In 1864–67 he was professor of natural science in Haverford College, and in 1889 he was appointed professor of geology and palaeontology in the University of Pennsylvania . To the study of the American fossil vertebrata he gave his special attention . From 1871 to 1877 he carried on explorations in the Cretaceous strata of Kansas, the Tertiary of Wyoming and Colorado; and in course of time he made known at least 6oc species and many genera of extinct vertebrata new to science . Among these were some of the oldest known mammalia, obtained in New Mexico . He served on the U.S . Geological Survey in 1874 in New Mexico, in 1875 in Montana, and in 1877 in Oregon and Texas . He was also one of the editors of the American Naturalist . He died in Philadelphia on the 12th of April 1897 .