Page 63 - All About History 58 - 2017 UK

Bone Wars

Evolution of

antagonism

The clash between
Cope and Marsh
quickly developed
beyond a war of words
1868
The backstabbing begins
Marsh bribes the New Jersey marl
pit managers Cope usually works
with to send their future fossil finds
to him at Yale instead.

Othniel Marsh and his assistants were armed with guns at 1871 Both men go west to dig for fossils.
their digs to fend off hostile and aggressive competitors
Frontier prospecting
Believing he has the greater claim
h
k
l
h
ll h hl h
spies to track Cope’s movements
, w while Cope had published 37 papers, c cruelly highlight Cope’s humiliating mistake at his because he arrived first, Marsh hires
p p
in Wyoming.

n next society meeting.
i
p
i

However,
h
Marsh s tally stood at a relatively measly two. Cope W Worse still, around the same time, Marsh went
p
y
d h
y
ll
an agreement with
Marsh‘s tally stoo
tuous
was impulsive, sometimes rash and tempestuous, behind Cope’s back in making an agreement with
ki
in the way he approached his work, while Marsh Cope’s long-time collaborator, marl pit owner
trusted in a colder, more calculated methodology Albert Vorhees. Marsh paid the excavators to send
in his research. The pair even diverged on any interesting finds to him, rather than to Cope. 1873
ideological lines: Marsh embraced Charles Darwin’s The time of collaboration was over. A friendship Scientific snipping
relatively new theory of natural selection, while forged in mutual ambition would soon turn into a Marsh and Cope attack each other’s
findings in scientific journals,
Cope ardently advocated a theory of evolution personal rivalry of prehistoric proportions. quibbling findings and questioning
It started as an academic war of words. Cope,
who discovered species first.
called Neo-Lamarckism. incensed at Marsh publicly humiliating him,
It’s likely Marsh considered Cope a bit of a
dilettante, not really serious about paleontology, rushed to publish any findings he made in the
while Cope saw Marsh as too rough and uncouth field in the hope of gaining the upper hand by
to be a true scientist. What they had in common, virtue of volume. At first, these revolved mainly
though, was their unbridled sense of self-worth about a series of ancient mammals and reptiles. 1878
and a drive to stop at nothing to succeed. However, Marsh’s superior academic status gave The professors’ teams in Wyoming
Trench warfare
him the strength to override any studies Cope had
Perhaps due to this shared zeal, they struck
and Colorado openly fight one
up a professional friendship. Over the next few made, leading to Edward’s frustrations mounting another as well as destroy unwanted
fossils to keep them out of
years, they frequently exchanged ideas, scientific even further. On top of that, Marsh’s Yale funding rival hands.
manuscripts and even helped each other study and powers of persuasion meant Cope was
and name fossils they found and received. But considered persona non grata at many of the dig
this amicable relationship took a sudden sour turn sites Marsh explored over this period.
Cope did manage to get some retribution in
shortly after their return to the United States. the form of a general reclassification of Eocene
In 1868, Marsh noticed an embarrassing flaw
with one of Cope’s largest finds thus far, a near- mammals, where he substituted Marsh’s genera for 1890
complete specimen of the aquatic Elasmosaurus. his own, more broad-reaching classification. When Congress investigate the US
Public scandal
Noticing Cope had placed the head of the The Bone Wars kicked into a high gear in the employees to testify against Marsh
Geological Survey, Cope recruits
plesiosaur at the tail-end of the skeleton, he mountains above the tiny town of Morrison, and also went to the newspapers.
called on renowned expert Joseph Leidy — one Colorado, in 1877. Schoolteacher Arthur Lakes The public quarrel lost both
men credibility.
of the mid-19th-century’s most influential had come across a large deposit of colossal bones
palaeontologists and former mentor to them both in the fossil-rich sandstone and decided to not
— to back him up. only notify Marsh of the finding, but also to send
him some 680 kilograms of fossilised bones. For
Unfortunately, Cope had already published his
findings by the time he accepted the mistake some reason, however, possibly due to a delayed
and, despite his desperate attempts to buy response from Marsh, Lakes also sent a cache of 1897
up every copy of the paper, several fossils to Cope. Marsh soon found out, and rushed Even in death, Cope refused accept
Extinction event
remained out of reach. Marsh and to publish his findings in the American Journal defeat. He donated his body to
Leidy both managed to keep hold of Science ahead of Cope. Lakes wrote to Cope science on the condition that the
size of his brain is compared to
of their copies, prompting one of requesting he forwarded his bones on to Marsh. Marsh’s. Marsh declined.
them (accounts vary on who) to
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