If anyone has been intrigued by the idea of a man carrying around the skull
of vertebrate paleontologist Edward Cope, then you can read about it in
"Hunting Dinosaurs", by Louie Psihoyos and John Kroebber (1994, New York,
Random House, 268 pp.). It was Psihoyos, not Bakker, who performed this act
of unquestionable taste*. To give you its flavor, here is a quotation from
p. 21:
 
"At a remote dig site in Utah, Jim Kirkland, paleontologist for Dinamation,
mentioned that Professor Cope was one of his heroes. 'Really,' I said.
'Would you like to meet him? He's in the van.'"
 
This goes on for page after page. It turns out that Cope really did intend
to become the type specimen of Homo sapiens, "and his bones were dedicated
to science. But science, as it turned out, didn't want him. His bones were
badly decalcifying--showing, it appeared, the beginning signs of syphilis."
 
--Which would surely never have been known to the world if he hadn't tried
this stunt. Sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed in the morning. When
I was a grad student in Colorado, I sported a T-shaped, Cope-style mustache
for a while. He was one of my heroes too.
 
Well, at least he got one last tour of the West after he died.
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama
Earth
 
*Unquestionably bad taste, that is.