Wikipedia:Peer review/Edward Drinker Cope/archive1

Edward Drinker Cope

This peer review discussion has been closed.
A biography on one of the most important men in the field of natural history, and one of the pioneers of American paleontology. I'm looking for comments on anything in the article; I hope to eventually polish it up and get it to FA to stand alongside Bone Wars. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 17:15, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Ruhrfisch comments: This looks very good, though I agree it needs a fair amount of polish before FAC. WIth that in mind, here are some suggestions for improvement, most fairly nitpicky.

• Lead - awkward sentence Cope married his cousin and had one child, moving closer to the marl pits of Haddonfield, New Jersey to be near fossil finds. First off, the two parts of the sentence don't really go together well as written. Perhaps a better transisition would help (...had one child, and moved his young family closer ...), or splitting the sentence into two? The other problem is that the lead has not said where he lived before, so the move lacks context - see WP:PCR
• Some other places in the lead could benefit from a bit of added context / detail: I think I would say his father wanted him to be a gentleman farmer, or give years for some things (beginning in 18XX, Cope made regular trips to the American West prospecting) or giving some examples of the dinosaurs he is credited with discovering / naming. The lead should draw the reader in and be a good summary - I think this is a decent summary, but if it were expanded a bit, it might be more interesting / inviting
• The lead says Cope's career helped define the field of American paleontology; he was a prodigious writer, with a record 1,200 papers published over his lifetime. but the article says it was over 1,200 papers - which is it? Also would it read better to say something like helped define the field of paleontology, especially in America?
• I am really not sure what this sentence means and it is awkward His most established theories on the origin of mammalian molars and the Cope’s Law on the gradual enlargement of mammalian species are considered his best generalized theories.
• In Early life I would mention his sisters before Despite complaints about his schooling, Cope returned to Westtown in 1855, accompanied by two of his sisters...
• The article seems under illustrated - on Commons there is a drawing of skulls that seems to have been made by Cope - could this be added? Also in the Bone Wars article there is a picture of an Allosaurus skelton Cope funded, but which was not opened until after his death - could that go in the legacy section here?
• Since the Legacy section says His childhood home at “Fairfield” and his Pine Street homes are recognized as national landmarks.[113] and Pine Street is a National Historic Landmark, I assumed Fairfield was too. However when I checked the ref, it does not mention Fairfield and it is not obviously on either the Philadelphia or Pennsylvania NHL lists on Wiki (which are complete). A photo of Fairfiled would be nice for the first section, but this needs to be resolved / fixed.
• There are many places where the language is rough - here a some examples (not a complete list) of where a good copyedit would help:
  • Alfred intended to give his son the same education that he himself was brought up in [received].
  • Unclear The school was founded in 1799 with fundraising by members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), as was the site of much of the Cope family's education.[4] First off, the Society of Friends was already mentioned, so the (Quakers) belongs at first mention. The infobox says he was raised a Quaker and this is mentioned later, so it should be made clearer here (and not just a cause his father supported, that also funded his school). Finally how about something like The school was founded in 1799 by members of the Society of Friends, who continued to support it. The school was the site of much of the Cope family's education.[4]
  • I assume Westtown is the location of the school, but we are never told this, just that it is near Westchester, then Despite complaints about his schooling, Cope returned to Westtown in 1855, accompanied by two of his sisters. I would also calrify where the Academy of Natural Sciences is in relation to the school (in Nearby Philadelpia).
  • This makes it sound like being a farmer is a professional scientific career In his letters to his father during this period until 1863, Edward continually yearned for more of a professional scientific career than that of a farmer..
• Typo (Britic?) Cope returned to Europe in August 1878 in response to an invitation to join the Britic Association for the Advancement of Science's Dublin meeting.
• The whole ordeal might have passed easily enough had Leidy not exposed the cover up at the next society meeting, not to in any way alienate Cope but only in response to Cope’s brief retracted statement where he never admitted he was wrong. Weeks later Cope paid a visit to the marl pits and found that men in Marsh’s employment were busy collecting in an area that Cope had thought his own. The two would never talk to each other amicably again. - needs a ref
• Here is a file of the wrong Elasmosaurus drawing File:Cope Elasmosaurus.jpg
• I think several of the monetary figures in the article would benefit from the {{inflation}} template - cost of tuition, size of his inheritance, what he got selling part of his collection...
• Link Philadelphia Zoological Gardens in Early life? Also the NAACP if that is what is meant in His father was a philanthropist and gave money to the Advancement of Colored People...?

Hope this helps. If my comments are useful, please consider peer reviewing an article, especially one at Wikipedia:Peer review/backlog (which is how I found this article). I do not watch peer reviews, so if you have questions or comments, please contact me on my talk page. Yours, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 14:41, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

A bit more - I went back and reread the lead just now. I think it should say more of the things that are so intriguing about Cope - that he had a very limited education and no university degree or academic base. That he spent most of his personal fortune on science. That his prodigous output also meant that he made frequent mistakes in print from writing things up too quickly. Hope this helps, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 20:35, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Great comments as always, Ruhr, many thanks. When I've whipped the article into a more finished shape I'll make sure to ping you and see if it works better for you. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 22:03, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

(copied from User talk:David Fuchs:)

I was compiling a list of scientists published (or mentioned) in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, and one of the better-written articles I came across while doing this was Edward Drinker Cope, so I looked in the history and saw your name there. If it is of interest, there are 17 papers that mention him in the search link I've just given from the AMNH publications. Those are in fact posthumous references to him, not his actual papers, and I see he published 1,200 papers in his lifetime, so those papers might not be of much interest, but I thought I'd drop a note off here anyway. The AMNH (which isn't linked in the article) may, however, be a good starting point for more about him (it seems strange he was turned down for a job there and at the Smithsonian), but these two pages ([1], [2]) do say that the Cope collections purchased by the AMNH were the core of the museum's paleontological collection. I can see from the article (and the Bone Wars article) that Marsh and Cope were competing at the time to build up their collections, but I'm wondering what the comparisons are like now - what is the legacy considered to be nowadays? It would be interesting to know where precisely Cope's collections ended up - I don't think the article makes that entirely clear - did everything go to the AMNH and the University of Pennsylvania (I can't find references to Cope specimens at UPenn), or did some of the specimens go elsewhere? I found this source (www DOT suite101 DOT com/article DOT cfm/paleontology/26564 - site currently blocked by the spam filter) that says "Today, Cope's collection of fossils is housed at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, PA.". There is confirmation of that here: "Cope described over 300 species of fishes between 1862 and 1894. His entire personal collection of fishes, reptiles and amphibians was bequeathed to the Academy in 1898. Most of Cope’s type specimens are in the Academy’s collection, with others in the USNM." (USNM = National Museum of Natural History). That's fishes. The herpetology collection is described here. More obscurely, there is a mention of nematode worms from his collection here. As I said, I don't know the full story of what happened to most of his collection, but the bit earlier in the article "The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia's foremost museum, did not bid on any of Cope's sales due to bad blood between Cope and the museum's leaders; as a result, most of Cope's major finds left the city", may give the wrong impression, as it seems large parts of at least some of the collection did end up back there, unless by "major finds" you mean the dinosaur finds? Also found this collection of Cope material. I should have put all this at the peer review - feel free to copy it over. Hope it helps. Carcharoth (talk) 00:47, 5 November 2009 (UTC) Oops. I see the Haverford College Library link is already in the external links. Oh well.

The article version I reviewed was this one.

• I fixed one of the disambiguation links, but left the other one as I was not sure which Charles Knight is being referred to in the article. I presume it is Charles R. Knight (given the common paleontology connection), but it would be best checked in the source that gives the quote from Knight. Also, the reference (Davidson, 106–109) is at the end of that paragraph - does the quote itself have to have its own reference to make quite clear where it comes from?
• Some other quotes are not quite clear as to where they are from either: (1) "her amiability and domestic qualities generally, her capability of taking care of a house, etc., as well as her steady seriousness weigh far more with me than any of the traits which form the theme of poets!"; (2) "less than perfect" or "not quite satisfactory"; (3) "severe attack of nightmare" in which "every animal of which we had found trace during the day played with him at night [...] sometimes he would lose half the night in this exhausting slumber." There was also one unclosed quote which I think I fixed correctly.
• One other thing I noticed: the early part of the article says Cope burned his letters from his European tour, but later it says his daughter burned any he had kept, so it sounds like he didn't burn them all?
• I linked various terms, and turned H. G. Seeley into a redirect to Harry Seeley (almost certainly the right one).
• Maybe see if Haddonfield have any local history resources on Cope?
• There seems to be an untold story here: "although he would never explore a cavern after an 1871 trip to the Wyandotte Caves in Indiana" - any idea what happened on that trip?
• Someone should write a stub on marl pit (we have marl, but that's not quite the right focus).
• I was going to link Fort Bridger, but that sounds like the wrong place.
• Do we know what happened to the museum he made to house his collection? Are there any museums or commemorations made in his name today? You mention "countless" memorials and commemorations to him - is it possible to give a few more?
• I agree with Ruhrfisch that the spelling should be British Association for the Advancement of Science (we don't have an article on the French one [AFAS] -yet!).
• There is also repetition of some links, but sorting that out might wait until you are more certain where the first mention of something will appear in the article, and how far away the next mention is.
• There is mention of the "Wheeler Survey", the "Hayden Survey" and the "Texas Geological Survey" - it would help if some of the details were explicated in the article.
• It's not clear how this sentence relates to what precedes it: "Cope’s relations with the president of the University of Pennsylvania soured, and the entire funding for paleontology in the government surveys was pulled".
• You might want to try and give good external links to the major works published by Cope (if any are online), or at least do a bibliography of his major works at the end of the article.
• In the paragraph on Julia and Annie and Julia's marriage, maybe make clear that Julia is his daughter and Annie his wife?
• There is a touch of repetition in places: (1)"bad blood between Cope and the museum's leaders" (Acadamy of Natural Sciences) and "Cope’s relations with the president of the University of Pennsylvania soured" (UPenn) - are these different clashes?; (2) "Marsh urged John Wesley Powell to request fossils Cope had collected during government surveys and attempted to persuade Ferdinand Hayden to "muzzle" Cope’s publishing." versus "At the urging of Marsh, Powell pushed for Cope to give back the specimens that he had unearthed during his employment under the government surveys."; (3) "The most prolific journal on amphibians and reptiles, Copeia, is named after him, as well as many other species" vs last paragraph; (4) "Cope was a staunch Neo-Lamarckian..." paragraph versus later sentence "He was an outspoken proponent for Neo-Lamarckism".
• Is the Collins at Cope's funeral his son-in-law? And, amazing though it seems, I think we have articles on several of those six people at his funeral: William Berryman Scott, Persifor Frazer (OK, that's a miss, as that is the patriarch Frazer, not the one at Cope's funeral), Horatio Curtis Wood, and Harrison Allen (who died later that year, it seems). Not 100% on those, so leaving it to you as to whether to link them or not.
• First mention of Davidson should say she is his biographer. First mention of Lanham doesn't make clear who he is.

That's probably enough for now. Oh, and nothing directly to do with this article, but I just discovered Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards. My jaw dropped open when I saw that! :-) Carcharoth (talk) 22:06, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Many thanks for the review! I admit after writing Bone Wars and Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards I forget what I've mentioned in which article, so I will try and make the survey information a bit more detailed so it makes more sense throughout. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 22:28, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

I've just been trying out some alt texts for the images. Hope they are OK and not too long. I tried to follow what it says here. Is it possible to get someone else to check the alt text? Carcharoth (talk) 01:29, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

User:Eubulides, I know, is a big ALT checker. I'll get him/her to look it over; I'm currently looking at possible new images to add. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 01:37, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Review by Jappalang on this version

Lede

• "Born to a wealthy Quaker family,"

  It is not explicitly stated in the article that the family were Quakers; they are mentioned as having close ties with the religon. Perhaps a change is needed in the main text.

• "... his father initially tried to rear Cope as a gentleman farmer,"

  Somehow, the phrasing made me picture Cope as a farm animal... replace "rear" with "bring up"?

• "Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved from Philidelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey to be closer to fossil finds."

  The mention of his moving to be closer to fossil finds is too sudden. There is no earlier mention of Cope's interest in fossils, attractive enough for him to move.

• "Though he had little formal scientific training, Cope eschewed teaching for field work."

  I would think that "formal scientific training" is also a "plus point" to have in teaching. Is it not?

• "he was a prodigious writer, with a record 1,400 papers published over his lifetime."

  There is (valid) criticism that his speed of publishing is (slightly?) marred with inaccuracies. Should this not be mentioned here?

Early life

• "His father was a philanthropist ..."

  What profession was his father in? It is not mentioned in the main text (hence a question of what made them wealthy). Annotation 1 mentions a shipping business... was he a trader?

• "Edward was born and raised in a large stone house in present-day suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called "Fairfield"."

  He was born in present-day suburban Philadelphia and not in 1840? Perhaps... "Edward was born and raised in a large stone house in rural Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the site was much later subsumed by the city as part of the suburban area, "Fairfield"."

• "Edward's letters home requesting a larger allowance show he was able to manipulate his father,"

  How would requests show manipulation? I suspect phrasing and "story-telling", but these should be made clearer.

• "... Cope returned to Westtown in 1855,"

  Where is Westtown? How can he return to it when it is not mentioned before this sentence?

• "While at the prestigious school ..."

  Which prestigious school in Westtown?

• "... for quarrelsome and bad conduct, and. hHis letters to his father show that he chafed at farm work ..."

• "In his letters to his father during this period until 1863, Edward continually yearned for more of a professional scientific career than that of a farmer, which he called "dreadfully boring.""

  Suggestion: "Up till 1863, Cope's letters to his father continually expressed his yearning for a more professional scientific career than that of a farmer, which he called "dreadfully boring.""

• "In 1858 he began working part-time at the Academy of Natural Sciences part-time,"

• "Though Alfred resisted his son's acceptance of a science career, he also paid for his son's private studies."

• "... Edward rented out the land ..."

• "Alfred finally gave in to Edward's strong intellectual capabilities and paid for classes."

  Can we rephrase this? It sounds like a war of minds (psychological battles) to get Al to pay for Ed's classes.

• "... gave him outlets to publish work and announce said publications his work;"

European travels

• "Osborn attributes Edward's sudden departure ..."

  Who is Osborn?

• "instead Edward considered working in the South ..."

• "He was also caught in a love affair ..."

  Is this phrasing too flamboyant to be encyclopaedic?

• "Osborn attributes Edward's sudden departure for Europe as a method of keeping him from being drafted into the American Civil War. [...] Cope did write to his father from London on February 11, 1864 that, "I shall get home in time to catch and be caught by the new draft. I shall not be sorry for this, as I know certain persons who would be mean enough to say that I have gone to Europe to avoid the war.""

  I think the two sentences should be placed in the same paragraph (the second) instead. In the first sentence's place in the first paragraph, we can say that "During this period, the United States was in a civil war, and young men were drafted into the armies."

• "Eventually however Cope decided to take took the pragmatic approach and waited out the conflict."

• "... which author Url Lanham deemed a "partial suicide"."

  What makes this writer a noteworthy source or authority on Cope?

• "... and met with some of the most highly esteemed scientists ..."

  Examples would be much better than "some".

• "Marsh, aged thirty-two, was attending the University of Berlin."

• "After Edward left Berlin the two maintained a correspondence,"

Family and early career

• "... seems to be the most practically the most suitable for me [him]..."

  This is a matter of quote styles, so it is up to your preference.

• "The two had a single daughter, Julia Biddle,"

  "Julia Biddle Cope" or just "Julia Biddle"?

• "Alfred Cope appeared not to press his son to continue to be a farmer, and Cope instead focused on his scientific career."

• "He primarily visited caves across the region, and although he would never explore a cavern. However, he stopped these cave explorations after an 1871 trip to the Wyandotte Caves in Indiana,. Nevertheless, he remained interested in the subject."

• "including an 1868 descriptions in 1868 of ..."

• "Cope's proximity to the beds upon after moving to Haddonfield made more frequent trips possible."

• "The Copes lived comfortably in a frame house backed by an apple orchard. and tended to by tTwo maids, tended the estate, where they which entertained a number of guests."

• "... Cope would write up wrote his findings ..."

• "... provided "the most important find in geology I have [he had] ever made"."

• "In 1875 Alfred Cope died and left Edward Cope with an inheritance of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. His father's Alfred's death was a blow to Edward, who had always confided in him Cope; his father was his constant confidant."

• "In 1877 he purchased half the rights to the American Naturalist in order to have an avenue in which to publish the papers ..."

• "... that Marsh questioned their dating. [...] Marsh's attempts to damage Cope's reputation ..."

  This is abrupt. There is no mention of the animosity between them (how it formed) before this. The last mention of Marsh was their meeting in Europe and their friendship.

• "many of the collection boxes remained unopened ..."

Bone Wars

• "Cope's relations with Marsh led to turned into a competition for bones between the two,"

• "When Marsh the two visited the marl pits with Cope, Cope introduced his colleague Marsh to the pit owner, Albert Vorhees."

• "Marsh would go went behind Cope's back and privately arrange for the made a private agreement with Vorhee: any fossils that Vorhees's men found were to be sent back to Marsh at New Haven."

• "When Marsh was at Haddonfield examining one of Cope’s fossil finds, the Elasmosaurus—a complete skeleton of a large aquatic plesiosaur, the Elasmosaurus, which that had four flippers and a long neck—. hHe commented that the fossil's head was on the wrong end, evidently stating that Cope had put the skull at the end of the vertebra of the tail."

• "Cope was outraged and the two argued for some time until the two they agreed to have Joseph Leidy come examine the bones and see judge who was right."

• "Leidy came and, simply picked up the head of the fossil and put it on the other end."

• "Cope was horrified since he had already published a paper on the fossil that had with the error in it at the American Philosophical Society."

• "He immediately tried to buy back the copies, but some remained floating around with their buyers ..."

• "... but only in response to Cope's brief retracted statement where he never admitted he was wrong."

  Confusing here... is the "retracted statement" the one in which "he never admitted he was wrong"? Since he retracted it, why respond?

• "The two would never talk to each other amicably again."

  This sentence ends the paragraph, and is not cited.

• "... fossil leaves ..."

  "... fossilized leaves ..."?

• "Cope was described as a genius and what Marsh lacked in intelligence, he easily made up for in connections—Marsh's uncle was George Peabody..."

  The opening clause seems out of place and disconnected from the context. What has the description of Cope's genius to do with their discoveries and sabotage? If the focus is on Marsh's connections, why not "Marsh exploited his connections to men in high power; his uncle was George Peabody ..."

• "They were both Cope and Marsh were extremely secretive as to where there of the sources of their fossils. were coming from and wWhen paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, at the time a student at Princeton, visited Cope to ask where he and some of his classmates should travel to look for fossils in the West, Cope politely denied them access to the knowledge of where the fossil fields were in Kansas refused."

• "Among these dinosaurs would be was Camarasaurus, today one of the most recognizable recreations of this time period."

  What does "today one of the most recognizable recreations of this time period" mean?

• "... consolidated the various government survey teams into one the United States Geological Survey ..."

• "This was discouraging to Cope because King immediately named Marsh, an his old college friend of King, Marsh, as the chief paleontologist."

Later years

• "The 1880s proved to be disastrous for Cope."

• "With hHis fortune alone was not enough to support his rivalry, so Cope invested in silver and gold mining., Most of his properties were mostly silver mines in New Mexico."

• "One such mine yielded an ore vein of worth $3 million worth of silver chloride."

• "For a while he made good money, but by 1886 had to give up his now-worthless stocks."

  Huh? Why worthless? What stocks are these?

• "During this period he still managed to published from 40 to 75 papers each year."

• "Rather than work with Powell and the Survey, Cope instead tried to inflame sentiment against him and the Survey them."

• "... who had used his own money while working as a volunteer with the survey ..."

• "Since at least 1885, Cope over the years had kept an elaborate journal of mistakes and misdeeds that both Marsh and Powell had committed over the years."

• "From scientific errors to publishing mistakes, he had it them written down in a journal, which that he had kept in the bottom drawer of his Pine Street desk."

• "Cope attacked Marsh for plagiarism and financial mismanagement, and attacked Powell for his geological classification errors and misspending of government allocated funds."

• "Marsh and Powell were each able to published their own side of the story and, in the end, little changed."

• "Marsh, however, was however quickly removed from his position as paleontologist for the government surveys,. Cope's relations ..."

• "In writing to Osborn about the articles, he laughed at the outcome,"

• "... and in 1889 he received a position at the University of Pennsylvania as the pProfessor of zZoology,"

• "The small yearly stipend was enough for the Cope's family to move back into one of the townhouses Cope he had been forced to relinquish earlier."

• "With Hhis finances having improved, he was able to publish a massive work on the ..."

• "These two books, along with his short essays on amphibians and reptiles, would placed Cope as one of the pillars of scientists in these fields."

  I have not heard of "pillars of scientists" before; is this correct phrasing ("pillar" used in this manner)?

• "His final expedition to the West took place in 1894, where when he prospected for dinosaurs in South Dakota ..."

• "On returning from a After their European honeymoon, the couple returned to Haverford."

• "The University of Pennslyvania, in turn, bought ..."

Death

• "His wife cared for him when she herself was not ill;"

  I thought they had separated and she moved to Haverford? Is the distance that near that daily commutes are short?

• "... but the plans were put on hold after a temporary improvement in Cope's health, during which time he. Cope went to Virginia looking for fossils, became ill again, and returned very weak to his home."

• "Osborn visited Cope on April 5, inquiring about Cope's health, but was pressed by the sick paleontologist instead pressed his friend on for his views on the origin of mammals."

• "Cope died oOn April 12 1897, sixteen weeks short of his 57th birthday, Cope died."

• "Sternberg wrote in his memoirs [...] His Cope's Quaker funeral ..."

• "Cope gave his family a choice of taking his books,"

• "Cope insisted through his will for that there be no graveside service and no or burial;"

• "His bones were to be extracted and kept in a locked drawer to be studied by anatomy students at the University."

• "Osborn had listed Cope's cause of death as uremic poisoning,"

• "... he had contracted in his travels from the women he fraternized with."

• "... no evidence of bony syphilis on Cope's skeleton."

  Is "bony syphilis" a common or accurate expression? It seems the term is only found in Kricun's notes on Cope.[3][4] If so, it should be in quotes.

• "Cope had been was survived by Marsh,"

Theories and legacy

• "... Julia burned any of the scandalous letters and journals ..."

• "... their recollections of the scandalous nature of some of Cope's unpublished routines."

• "... she therefore wanted to ..."

• "He did not blame blacks for their poor virtue, but wrote that, ..."

  This may need rephrasing as it seems to put it as a fact that blacks had poor virtues, which Cope did not blame them for, rather than Cope thinks blacks were inherently inclined to vices and did not blame them. Suggestion: "Although he believed the blacks had poor virtues, he did not blame them, writing, ...'"

• "Though the view has been shown incorrect, in Cope's time it was the prevalent theory among paleontologists in Cope's time."

• "As a young man, Hhe read Charles Darwin's Voyage of a Naturalist as a young man, with the book having which had little effect on him."

• "... was that Darwin had discussed "too much geology" ..."

• "In 1887, Cope published his own Origin of the Fittest: Essays in Evolution."

  Is "Origin of the Fittest: Essays in Evolution" supposed to be in italics (work) or in quotes (articles, essays, or papers) per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles)?

• "Cope was a strong believer in the law of use and disuse, —that an individual will slowly, over time,"

• "These include three major volumes: On the Origin of Genera (1867), The Vertebrata of the Tertiary Formations of the West (1884: "Cope's bible") and The Origin of the Fittest: Essays in Evolution (1887)."

  Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles) issues (quotes or italics)?

• "His greatest anatomical generalization on the origin of mammalian molars and 'Cope's Law' on the gradual enlargement of a population lineage tends to increase body size over geological time, are testaments to the brilliance and attention to detail that Cope commanded."

  Grammar and length issues: the second clause starts with an "are"...

• "The most prolific journal on amphibians and reptiles, Copeia, is named after him, as well as many other species that he discovered or was named in his honor, such as the Gambelia copeii. He was an active member of many different scientific societies, most notably the American Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical society."

  The nearest cite is Levins, but the source state none of these things. Copeia should be in italics.

• "The salamander, Dicamptodon copei Nussbaum, 1970; the toad, Bufo americanus copei H. C. Yarrow and Henshaw, 1878; the lizard Gambelia wislizenii copeii (H. C. Yarrow, 1882) and the snake Cemophora coccinea copei Jan, 1863 were named for Cope by various other naturalists."

  What the heck is with the formatting here?

• "The Copeia, the foremost journal for ichthyologists and herpetologists, was named in Cope's honor in 1915 because of his work in the field."

  Totally unsourced. This is also somewhat repetitive of the much earlier sentence "The most prolific journal on amphibians and reptiles, Copeia, is named after him,".

Images

• File:Cope Edward Drinker 1840-1897.png - Marcus Benjamin is not the author of this photo, he is just the author of the article, "Edward Drinker Cope Paleontologist 1840-1897". This is a crop of F. Gutekunst's work on p. 11 of The Century illustrated monthly magazine (1898), Volume 55.

• File:Cope Quarry.jpg - publishing date? How did Anky-man acquire it? Was it sold/given to him by relatives of the photographer, or he inherited it from his ancestor or the photographer? A sale (from author to someone else) could constitute first publishing.

• File:Edward Drinker Cope’s study in 1897.jpg - publishing date?

• This article has some pictures of the dinosaurs described by Cope, as restored by Professor H. F. Osborn.

• This article has an early portrait of Cope, many scans of one of Cope's journal (with his handwriting and sketches) and a photo of him when he was ten years old. I feel these add more to the article than some of the above pictures (and are verifiably published in US before 1923 to boot).

• My two above suggested sources come from the first two pages of this Google Books search. Perhaps there are other noteworthy photos related to Cope among these pre-1923 books.

Sources

• dinodata.org, and elbetz.net are not properly or consistently formated in the Notes.

• What makes dinodata.org a reliable source?

• What makes elbetz.net a reliable source? Can we not check the sources provided there and use them instead? Note: User:Ellin Beltz.

• I did not dwelve too much into the sources, but as pointed out above in one example, there might be issues with whether a source contains the information presented here.

• I believe ref tags can be used for the Annotations.

General

• Not a concern of mine, but some people might prefer "though"s to be changed to "although"s.

Very fine article on the whole, but there are issues (information not reflected in the sources is serious). Some language issues pointed above might not be, since my standard is not as good as others... Jappalang (talk) 01:55, 9 November 2009 (UTC)