Edward Drinker Cope (born July 28, 1840, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died April 12, 1897, Philadelphia) was a paleontologist who discovered approximately a thousand species of extinct vertebrates in the United States and led a revival of Lamarckian evolutionary theory, based largely on paleontological views.
After a brief period at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, as professor of comparative zoology and botany (1864–67), Cope devoted 22 years to exploration and research. Most of this time was spent in the discovery and description of extinct fishes, reptiles, and mammals of the western United States, from Texas to Wyoming. He served as paleontologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and, with Joseph Leidy, described the fossils collected by the Ferdinand Hayden Survey in Wyoming. He worked out the evolutionary histories of the horse and of mammalian teeth. A race with his colleague Othniel Marsh for priority in discovering American fossil dinosaurs culminated in a bitter feud that proved damaging to the reputations of both men.
Cope’s theory of kinetogenesis, stating that the natural movements of animals aided in the alteration and development of moving parts, led him to openly support Lamarck’s theory of evolution through inheritance of acquired characteristics. Financial difficulties compelled him to accept a position on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania (1889–97).
Cope is most noted for his invaluable contribution to knowledge of the vertebrates that flourished between the extinction of the dinosaurs (65.5 million years ago) and the rise of man (2.6 million years ago), a time span known then as the Tertiary Period of geologic time. (This interval has since been replaced by the Paleogene and Neogene periods.) Among his 1,200 books and papers are Reptilia and Aves of North America (1869–70) and Relation of Man to Tertiary Mammalia (1875).