SKETCH OF EDWARD D. COPE. in 



sey in 1866, where he discovered fifty-eight species of vertebrates new 

 to science, inchiding the remarkable dinosaur, Loelaps aqitilungis. 

 Next he turned his attention to the Miocene strata of Maryland and 

 North Carolina, where he found many cetaceans, of which half the 

 species were new, and some were of great size. He also surveyed the 

 Trias of the Atlantic slope, and contributed, by the identification of 

 the genus Belodon, of Von Meyer, in North Carolina and Pennsylva- 

 nia, to fix the determination of its age. In 1868 he was engaged, in 

 connection with the geological survey of Ohio, in the examination of 

 the characters of the air-breathing vertebrates, of which he deter- 

 mined thirty-four species of fourteen genera, and defined the order 

 Stegocephali. 



His Western explorations were begun in 1870, when he visited the 

 Cretaceous region of western Kansas, and found there some remarkable 

 forms of fish, and the Liodon and Elasmosaurus, the largest known 

 swimming saurians. His next excursion was for the exploration in 

 1872 of the Eocene Bad Lands of the tributaries of Green River, in 

 Wyoming Territory. Mr. J. King at one time made these beds Mio- 

 cene, but Professor Cope claims to be the first to determine that they 

 were Eocene. He found in them the remains of a huge mammal, 

 with three pairs of osseous horns, or processes, on the skull, to which 

 he gave the name of Loxolophodon cormitus. From this and other 

 material, obtained at the time, he was able to determine the true char- 

 acter of the Dinocerata, and to refer the groups to the Prohoscidm as 

 a sub-order. In the next year, as paleontologist of Dr. Hayden's Sur- 

 vey of the Territories, he conducted an expedition into northeast 

 Colorado for the exploration of the White River beds. Among his 

 discoveries here were five species of the new genus Symhorodon, creat- 

 ures of gigantic size, with long, horn-like processes on the front of the 

 skull, and another animal about as large as a squirrel. In 1874, as 

 paleontologist to Lieutenant Wheeler's geographical surveys, he took 

 part in studying the geology of northwestern and central New Mex- 

 ico. The geology of the Northwest region, which, in the estimation 

 of Professor Cope, had been previously misunderstood, was devel- 

 oped, and a great tract of Eocene sedimentary rocks identified. A 

 rich vertebrate fauna was found, in its main features identical with the 

 Suessonian of Western Europe. The primitive type of the carnivora 

 was first defined under the name Creadonta, and a gigantic bird also 

 discovered. The same expedition explored the red beds of the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Loup Fork bed of the Santa Fe. In 1875 Pro- 

 fessor Cope determined that the vertebrates of this formation were 

 reptiles and not mammals, as had been supposed, and their age was 

 therefore set down as cretaceous instead of tertiary. This expedition, 

 together with the previous one in the same horizon in Colorado, 

 yielded forty new species, many of which were dinosaurs of high or- 

 ganization. Some of the herbivorous forms were found to have an 



