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From Heredity and Genetics: The Dialogue Continued
Cope, Origin of the Fittest
Edward Drinker Cope (1840–1897). The Origin of the Fittest.... New York: Appleton, 1887.
This illustration in a book by paleontologist and Philadelphia native Edward D. Cope shows two parallel, evolutionary lines of different lizard species, from bottom to top. Unlike Darwin, Cope believed that new species were evolved, not as a result of small variations and selection, but by following a predetermined sequence of development. Cope and many other late-19th-century scientists accepted evolution, but did not believe natural selection could explain everything. (It wasn’t until the 1930s that natural selection returned to prominence.)
