1840-1897

American paleontologist and zoologist who was among the first to discover complete dinosaur skeletons. His conflicts with rival paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh and their competing fossil-hunting expeditions in the American West increased public interest in paleontology. Cope was a proponent of the Neo-Lamarckian view of evolution. This theory regarded attributes developed through use, rather than natural selection, to be the mechanism of evolutionary change.