The Herper (reptile and amphibian enthusiast) of the week is Edward Drinker Cope. Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. He lived from 1840 to 1897. Cope wrote over 1400 scientific papers during his live. He also discovered and described over a thousand fossilized vertebrates.
Edward Drinker Cope was also part of the bone wars. The bone wars was a battle between Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh to find better fossils than each other. They even went so far to destroy fossils so the other one wouldn’t find it.
Numerous species are named after Cope such as the Cope’s Gray Tree Frog. The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) even named their journal after him – Copeia.
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