The Origin of the Fittest: Essays on Evolution

FIRST EDITION, xix,467,[16]pp., 17 plates, numerous woodcut text illustrations, publishers brown cloth, spine in gilt and blind, 8vo, New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1887

Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. However, he is remembered not only for his scientific contributions but also for his personal feud with Othniel Charles Marsh which led to the fossil-finding race known as the ‘Bone Wars’.

Using his influence in Washington, D.C., Cope was granted a position on the U.S. Geological Survey under Ferdinand Hayden. While the position offered no salary, it afforded Cope a great opportunity to collect fossils in the West and publish his finds. Cope’s flair for dramatic writing suited Hayden, who needed to make a popular impression with the official survey reports.

The Bone Wars, or Great Dinosaur Rush, was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Both used underhanded methods to try to outdo the other in the field, resorting to bribery, theft, and the destruction of bones. Each scientist also sought to ruin his rival’s reputation and cut off his funding, using attacks in scientific publications.

“Most scientists of the day recoiled to find that Cope’s feud with Marsh had become front-page news. Those closest to the scientific fields under discussion, geology and vertebrate paleontology, certainly winced, particularly as they found themselves quoted, mentioned, or mis-spelled. The feud was not news to them, for it had lurked at their scientific meetings for two decades. Most of them had already taken sides”

Cope and Marsh were financially and socially ruined by their attempts to outdo and disgrace each other, but they made important contributions to the field of paleontology. The efforts of the two men led to more than 136 new species of dinosaurs being discovered and described.

Including some of the most well-known dinosaurs; species of Triceratops, Allosaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, Camarasaurus and Coelophysis. Their cumulative discoveries defined the field of paleontology; before Cope and Marsh’s discoveries, there were only nine named species of dinosaur in North America. The Bone Wars also led to the discovery of the first complete skeletons, and the rise in popularity of dinosaurs with the public.

Origin of the Fittest collects in essay form Cope’s thoughts on evolution, from mammalian molars to metaphysics.