LIFE AND WORKS OF COPE. XIX 



Cope's final opinions and additions to the arrangement 

 and phylogeny of the fishes appear in this Syllabus, and 

 may be considered as an extension of his earlier work upon 

 the fin and jaw structure. Of this Smith Woodward speaks 

 as follows: "Among the early families, the characters of 

 the median fins lead to the recognition of two or three 

 divisions. It is probable that one type in which the 

 median fin remains undivided and more or less in its 

 primitive condition will eventually be met with, even if it 

 be not already known. This group has received (from 

 Cope) the name of Haplistia, and we provisionally assign 

 to it the problematical Tarrasiidse. The second and third 

 types, though now clearly definable, are not satisfactorily 

 formulated in the somewhat fluctuating classifications of 

 Cope ; and the terms Rhipidistia and Adinistia are 

 selected on the present occasion from those already pro- 

 posed by that author, as being most expressive and accu- 

 rate." (Catalogue, Pt. II., p. xxii.) 



Studies among Living and Extinct Amphibians. 



" There never has been a naturalist." writes Dr. Baur, 

 " who has published so many papers upon the taxonomy, 

 morphology and paleontology of the Amphibia and Rep- 

 tilia as Professor Cope." The first of a series of more than 

 forty papers upon the former group is the one " On the Pri- 

 Tfiary Divisions of the Salmdndridas, with description's of 

 two new species," alluded to in his letter above, and pre- 

 sented at the age of 19 (April, 1859). It exhibited the pre- 

 cocious taxonomic instinct which soon afterwards prompted 

 him to attack and rearrange the major divisions of the 

 Amphibia. Rapidly following this first essay by others 

 upon the Anura, in 1865 and 1866 he outlined the larger 

 Ecaudate or Anurous divisions : I. Aglossa ; II. Bufoni- 

 formia ; III. Arcifera ; TV. Raniformia. 



At the age of 25 he described his first extinct Amphibiar 



