Random Details About The Bone Wars: Feud That Created And Almost Destroyed Paleontology (16 items)

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  (#5) Eventually, Agents Weren’t Enough And The Paleontologists Hired Dinosaur Rustlers

  As the intensity of the Bone Wars picked up, the pair started to hire dinosaur rustlers to gain an advantage over the other. At the hotly-contested area of Como Bluff, WY, Cope hired a prospector to steal bones from Marsh’s dig site. This became standard practice, with dinosaur rustlers thieving fossils, spying on excavations, and even pelting rival workers with stones. On at least one occasion, guns were brandished and the Bone Wars threatened to turn into a real war, but cooler heads prevailed, and the bloodshed remained purely theoretical.
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  (#8) Marsh Attempted To Use A Government Position To Seize Cope’s Fossils

  The Bone Wars proved taxing to both participants, but it was Edward Drinker Cope who first felt the attrition. After losing his government gig and being forced to fund his fossil-hunting endeavors with his dwindling inheritance, Cope found his life in shambles—by 1889, he had lost his fortune, his wife, and his reputation. All Cope had left were his fossils, and Othniel Charles Marsh still didn't stop coming after him.

  In the early 1880s, Marsh became the head of the United States Geological Survey, and he used his position to push for a law saying that all fossils procured using any sort of government funding would become the property of the Smithsonian Museum. It was clear that this rule was intended to rob Cope of his remaining bones, but fortunately Cope had kept studious receipts, and could prove that the majority of his specimens were acquired with his own personal funds.
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  (#12) Marsh Often Used Bribes To Obtain Fossils

  Othniel Charles Marsh’s strategy to win the Bone Wars was usually rather simple—he used his financial backing to outbid Edward Drinker Cope by any means necessary. In fact, Marsh became so well-known for his use of bribery that others in the fossil trade began to use it against him. When some Union Pacific Railroad employees in Como Bluff, WY, discovered a treasure trove of fossils in the late 1870s, they contacted Marsh with an offer to sell, but (falsely) hinted that they were also negotiating with Cope—causing Marsh to pony up some extra-generous terms.
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  (#15) In The End, Both Men Lost The Bone Wars—But Joseph Leidy And The Smithsonian Won Them

  Ultimately, neither Othniel Charles Marsh nor Edward Drinker Cope can be said to have truly won the Bone Wars. On the whole, Marsh discovered more species, but both men died destitute and with a less-than-stellar scientific reputation. Their own hubris and hunger for victory led them to reach beyond their means, and although they discovered a number of significant dinosaur species, today they’re more well-known for their feuding.

  If anyone won the Bone Wars, it’s Joseph Leidy. After Marsh and Cope's conflict caused him to bow out of dinosaur-hunting altogether, Leidy ended up branching out into other prehistoric fields, discovering more than 100 protozoans and 300 invertebrates. Another winner of the Bone Wars was the Smithsonian Institution, which acquired a seriously impressive fossil collection thanks to Marsh and Cope.
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  (#11) The Wild West Held Some Of Marsh And Cope's Greatest Discoveries

  When railroad expansion opened up the American West in the 1870s, it also opened up a world of opportunity for fossil hunters, and Marsh and Cope raced to take advantage of this new frontier. The paleontology professors sent employees to states like Wyoming and Colorado in an attempt to discover new species before their rival. These new territories proved to be fertile grounds for paleontology, turning up significant finds like the Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Allosaurus. Paleontology flourished, but unfortunately, the intensity of the competition between Marsh and Cope led to some seriously questionable science in the midst of all the discoveries.
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  (#10) The Paleontologists Sniped At One Another Through Scientific Journals And Battled Over Naming Rights

  Although the Bone Wars contained more than a few violent episodes, it was also a conflict between prolific scientists, and thus many of the battles occurred within the pages of scientific journals. Cope and Marsh continually sniped at one another, pointing out the other's errors and inaccuracies while defending their own claims. The two frequently attempted to rename creatures that the other had already claimed, including a memorable episode in which Cope, Marsh, and Joseph Leidy each cited different names for the same dinosaur that they had independently discovered, which they argued over through academic findings.

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