US paleontologist; known for his competitive harvesting of equid
fossils from the
American Mid-west, Cope is less well known for the
Eocene primates he excavated and described; also well-remembered for his neo-Lamarckism and the exposition of Cope’s
laws, but less so for the obscure but important fact that he was the first scientist to use the word
evolution in the title and text of an Englishlanguage publication (1868); later also owner-editor of the successful journal The
American Naturalist.