The Dinosaur Clash That Went Too Far

 The Bone Wars describe the bitter, decades-long rivalry between American paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope during the late nineteenth century, as both raced to discover and name new dinosaur species across the American West.

Their feud involved bribing rival excavation crews, smashing unexcavated fossil beds to deny competitors access, and rushing scientific papers into print, sometimes with embarrassing errors, including Cope's famous misplacement of a skull on the wrong end of an Elasmosaurus skeleton. Despite the destructive personal animosity, their combined, competing efforts identified over one hundred thirty new dinosaur species and dramatically advanced American paleontology. Both men ultimately exhausted their personal fortunes funding the rivalry and died in considerably reduced circumstances. #bonewars #paleontologyhistory #dinosaurdiscoveries #19thcenturyscience