Edward Drinker Cope, for whom Drinker is named, was one of the most colorful characters in American paleontology. Although he published well over one thousand scientific papers in his lifetime, he is perhaps best remembered for his intense rivalry with fellow paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, in an epic 19th century feud now referred to as "The Bone Wars".

This conflict was sparked by an anatomical altercation over Cope's description of Elasmosaurus,an extraordinarily long plesiosaur. Marsh, a stolid researcher who had little tolerance for mistakes, pointed out that Cope had restored a long-necked animal as a long-tailed one by placing the skull at the wrong end of the spine. Cope's embarrassment was too much for his ego to bear. The two became bitter enemies, publicly criticizing each other's work, hiring spies and saboteurs to ruin each other's excavations, and each rushing to publish their research before the other in a form of scientific one-upmanship. Never had paleontology advanced so quickly for such ignoble causes.

In a taxonomic twist of fate, it seems that the animal most closely related to Drinker is a small ornithopod named Othnielia, after Cope's bitter rival, Othniel Marsh. These two diminutive hypsilophodontoids share, among other features, relatively long inner toes. This extra weight-bearing digit may have helped prevent Drinker and Othnielia from sinking into the wet, marshy areas of Late Jurassic Wyoming.