Life Through Geologic Time

I'm just a Paleobiology major trying to share the beauty of the past, praise silt, and all of its wonders yet to be uncovered.

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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

  Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son’s scientific aspirations. Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved fromPhiladelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years. Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Cope’s financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s, forcing him to sell off much of his fossil collection. He experienced a resurgence in his career toward the end of his life before dying of unidentified causes on April 12, 1897. Though Cope’s scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, his contributions helped to define the field of American paleontology. He was a prodigious writer, with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals would debate the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His proposals on the origin of mammalian molars and for the gradual enlargement of mammalian species over geologic time (“Cope’s rule”) are notable among his theoretical contributions. Read More Sorry, Cope has a significantly more abundant life than Marsh did, so here’s the wikipedia article… Sorry I’m not writing it myself…

 

Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son’s scientific aspirations. Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved fromPhiladelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years.

Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Cope’s financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s, forcing him to sell off much of his fossil collection. He experienced a resurgence in his career toward the end of his life before dying of unidentified causes on April 12, 1897.

Though Cope’s scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, his contributions helped to define the field of American paleontology. He was a prodigious writer, with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals would debate the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His proposals on the origin of mammalian molars and for the gradual enlargement of mammalian species over geologic time (“Cope’s rule”) are notable among his theoretical contributions.

Read More

Sorry, Cope has a significantly more abundant life than Marsh did, so here’s the wikipedia article… Sorry I’m not writing it myself…


Othniel Charles Marsh was an American paleontologist who is responsible for the discovery of numerous ancient species, several “accidental” falsehoods, such as brontosaurus, which I refuse to capitalize as it is not real, yet, and the origin of birds. He was born into a “modest” family (which I shall take as meaning middle class,) and was able to afford higher education due to his awesome uncle, George Peabody, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. O. C. Marsh went to Yale, studying anatomy, geology, and mineralogy after he graduated, while he traveled the world. He started the Bone Wars with Edward Drinker Cope, a former close friend, who he drove to being a rival by being mean spirited about a mix-up of a fossil that Cope put together. He started the Bone Wars in the 1870’s and it didn’t end until the 1890’s, that’s twenty years of quarreling over fossil finds, funding, and misnomers. He even destroyed fossils that he could not immediately recover so that other paleontologists couldn’t get their grubby little scientific hands on them. Marsh ended up with financial troubles near the end and had to forfeit almost his entire collection to the government, as the government funded most of his digs. He had something to do with the USGS, but I can’t seem to find it, sorry. Altogether, he was a horrible scientist, but he brought so much to the field of paleontology, that he is one of the greatest paleontologists of all time.

Othniel Charles Marsh was an American paleontologist who is responsible for the discovery of numerous ancient species, several “accidental” falsehoods, such as brontosaurus, which I refuse to capitalize as it is not real, yet, and the origin of birds. He was born into a “modest” family (which I shall take as meaning middle class,) and was able to afford higher education due to his awesome uncle, George Peabody, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. O. C. Marsh went to Yale, studying anatomy, geology, and mineralogy after he graduated, while he traveled the world. He started the Bone Wars with Edward Drinker Cope, a former close friend, who he drove to being a rival by being mean spirited about a mix-up of a fossil that Cope put together. He started the Bone Wars in the 1870’s and it didn’t end until the 1890’s, that’s twenty years of quarreling over fossil finds, funding, and misnomers. He even destroyed fossils that he could not immediately recover so that other paleontologists couldn’t get their grubby little scientific hands on them. Marsh ended up with financial troubles near the end and had to forfeit almost his entire collection to the government, as the government funded most of his digs. He had something to do with the USGS, but I can’t seem to find it, sorry. Altogether, he was a horrible scientist, but he brought so much to the field of paleontology, that he is one of the greatest paleontologists of all time.