Edward Drinker Cope

Edward Drinker Cope ( born July 28, 1840 in Philadelphia, PA, † April 12, 1897 ibid ) worked as American scientists on many zoological areas, such as the taxonomy of extinct vertebrates and paleontology, ichthyology ( ichthyology ) Herpetology and Mammalogy ( Mammalogy ), the theory of evolution, and not least of comparative anatomy.

Life and work

Cope was born in July 1840 in a Quaker family. An early interest in natural history, and in 1859 he left the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia get a scientific paper about the family of salamanders ( Salamandridae ). At about the same time he became a member of the Megatherium Club at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He was educated partly at the University of Pennsylvania, partly on trips to Europe. On August 14, 1865 he married his cousin Annie Pym.

The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia issued Cope in 1865 the post of curator, he paused to 1873. At Haverford College, he was from 1864 to 1867 professor of natural history. In 1884 he was curator at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington and 1889-1897 he was a professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Pennsylvania, while from 1895 also took over the chair of zoology and comparative anatomy. In 1896 he was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.

Cope's specialty was the study of American fossil vertebrates. He accompanied in the years 1871 to 1877 research trips into the chalk strata of Kansas and the Tertiary in Wyoming and Colorado. He described more than a thousand species and many species of extinct vertebrates, including some of the oldest known mammals and 56 species of dinosaurs such as Camarasaurus supremus and Coelophysis bauri. Cope wrote more than 1200 scientific papers. His longtime race with Prof. Othniel Charles Marsh to the discovery of new dinosaur fossils and the consequent, sometimes violent confrontations became known as the " Bone Wars" (bone wars). Cope was in the expeditions to the U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico ( 1874), Montana (1875 ), Oregon and Texas ( 1877) involved. He was from 1878 to 1897 co-owner and co-author of the journal The American Naturalist.

In the summer of 1876 Cope began far from the spot to dig for dinosaur fossils, had only a few days earlier at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. One morning came a group of Indians from the tribe of Crow into his camp. Cope had just finished cleaning his dentures and was just about, they commit themselves once again. The Indians were so impressed by that they even calling on Cope to repeat the procedure. They kept teeth that you could take out and reinsert it, for a powerful spell and supplied in the following weeks Copes excavation company with enough fish and game.

Cope died in April 1897 in his hometown of Philadelphia. Previously, he had determined that his body to science (Wistar Institute) should be provided, since his body in his opinion, the type specimen, ie should represent the official scale of Homo sapiens. However, signs of incipient syphilis were detected in the preparation and compilation of his body, so that his body has disappeared, contrary to its determination in the archive.

Cope as nomenclatural type of Homo sapiens

In 1993, the famous paleontologist and dinosaur expert Robert T. Bakker, he wanted to Cope shall determine on the basis of his skull as nomenclatural type of Homo sapiens (that of modern humans ) by "subsequent designation " of a lectotype. As a great admirer Copes he intended to meet his last will. Linnaeus had when he in 1758 described the people in the work Systema Naturae, is not correctly related to a particular individual as a scientific specimen copy, because he was of the view that man to man ( " homo nosce te ipsum " ) known and it was therefore of such a copy is not required. Bakker's definition is very doubtful for various reasons. Itself determines the skeleton of Linnaeus to the lectotype for the species Homo sapiens: In particular, already was by William Thomas Stearn (4-22 1959, Systematic Zoology 8). Bakkers justification for the type definition also violated Article 75.3 of the International Regulations for Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN ). In addition, the skull of Cope is in the relevant museum collection currently no longer discoverable. In addition, Bakkers intended type definition has never been validly published by himself, but is only in the book Hunting Dinosaurs by Psihoyo (1994 ) quotes. Cope 's remains are therefore not valid definitely the type specimen of the human species

Works

• On the Method of Creation of Organic Types. M'Calla & Stavely, Philadelphia, 1871.
• Collected Papers in Geology and Paleontology. 1873-97.
• On Some of Prof. Marsh's Criticisms. In 1873.
• On the Short - Footed Ungulata of the Eocene of Wyoming. Philadelphia 1873.
• Sketch of the Zoology of Ohio. Philadelphia 1873.
• On the Plagopterinae and the Ichthyology of Utah. In 1874.
• On the Geologic Age of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Eocene of New Mexico. In 1876.
• On a Carnivorous Dinosaurian from the Dakota Beds of gold. In 1877.
• On the Effects of Impacts and Strains on the Feet of Mammalia. Philadelphia 1881.
• The Origin of the Fittest. Macmillan & Appleton, London, New York, 1887.
• The Primary Factors of Organic Evolution. Open Court, Chicago, London, 1896.
• Syllabus of Lectures on the Vertebrata. Philadelphia 1898 p. m.
• The Crocodilians, Lizards and Snakes of North America. Washington 1900 p. m.