Re: Dino that hopped like a Kangaroo?

[Danvarner@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/7/02 1:30:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time, edels@msn.Com writes:


<< Since Knight was associated with Cope, he was depicting _Laelaps_ as
described to him by Cope.  (Somewhere I've read a description of
Knight's meeting with Cope in Philadelphia.  Thom Holmes - are you still
on the list? - do you know about this?  Or Jane Davidson - do you know
about this meeting description?).  >>
    
       In 1897, Henry Fairfield Osborn and the paleontology department at the American Museum of Natural History got into the dinosaur business in a big way. Osborn hired Barnum Brown and sent him to the Como Bluff area of Wyoming. Dinosaur-bearing quarries were opened then and worked for years to come and the rest is history. Generating publicity was very important in those days as it is today. It was important to Osborn to have his program regarded as the world's finest. The year before, Chas.R.Knight began his association with Osborn in the literature with an illustrated article about the AMNH's mammalian discoveries in the west in "The Century" magazine, "Prehistoric Quadrupeds of the Rockies". "The Century" was one of the foremost and influential magazines of the time and always had exceptional illustrations. It was decided to follow-up with an story about dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles written by William Ballou under the guid!
an!
!
ce of Cope. Ballou was Cope's media contact going back to the wars with Marsh in the "New York Herald". Osborn, always in close contact with Cope, sent Knight down to Philadelphia that spring of 1897 to consult with the then greatly ailing Cope about the "saurians" in order to illustrate the article, Cope being the leading authority (unless you asked Marsh) and owner of the collections of same heading for the AMNH. Knight spent two weeks there studying and sketching under Cope's direction and also reported back to Osborn on Cope's health. Cope died only weeks after Knight returned to New York. The illustrated article, "Strange Creatures of the Past", appeared later that year along with an obit by Osborn and many fabulous Knight drawings and paintings.
       A number of models were made by Knight of the various animals and were used as models using Knight's well-known technique. All this has been well documented in Czerkas and Glut's Knight biography, _Dinosaurs, Mammoths and Cave Men_. Other information is in Jane Davidson's excellent life of Cope,_The Bone Sharp_. DV