The most notorious scientific feud in history Lukas Rieppel
After the California Gold Rush of 1848,
white settlers streamed west
to strike it rich.
In addition to precious metals,
they unearthed another treasure:
dinosaur bones.
Two wealthy scientists in particular—
Othniel Charles Marsh
and Edward Drinker Cope—
competed to uncover these
prehistoric monsters.
Marsh and Cope were first to describe
iconic creatures
like Brontosaurus, Triceratops,
and Stegosaurus.
But they also showcased the destructive
whirlwind of profiteering and ambition
that fueled American science
during the late 1800s.
Their rivalry, one of the most notorious
scientific feuds in history,
became known as the Bone Wars.
Marsh was ill-tempered and had
a knack for debunking falsehoods.
One woman said that getting to know him
was “like running against a pitchfork.”
Cope, on the other hand, was charismatic
and given to bold theorizing.
But he was also sarcastic
and temperamental.
By his own admission, he wasn’t
“constructed for getting along comfortably
with the general run of people.”
When Marsh and Cope first met in 1864,
they were friendly,
and each named a new species
in the other’s honor.
But their relationship soon soured.
In 1868, Cope took Marsh to a quarry
near his home in New Jersey
where one of the most complete dinosaur
skeletons to date
had recently been discovered.
Sensing an opportunity,
Marsh paid the mine operators
to send him the most interesting
new finds.
Outraged, Cope accused Marsh of bribery.
That same year, Cope showed Marsh
his reconstruction of a new marine reptile
called Elasmosaurus.
Marsh immediately noticed
that something was wrong:
Cope had mistaken the creature’s
long neck for its tail.
When Cope’s mentor sided with Marsh,
Cope was mortified.
He tried to buy and destroy every copy
of the article containing his blunder,
but to no avail.
Their mutual resentment blossomed.
After the transcontinental railroad
was completed the following year,
Cope and Marsh began scouring
the American West for fossils.
They found riches the likes
of which neither had dreamed.
Relying on the help of Native American
guides,
Marsh made some especially
significant discoveries,
like ancient birds with teeth
that are still celebrated
as a missing link between dinosaurs
and modern birds.
Cope made important discoveries, too,
but Marsh successfully invalidated
many of them,
showing them to be redundant
with other known species.
Enraged, Cope tried to secure priority
for new findings
by announcing them via telegram.
He even purchased a respected journal
so future publications could
be rushed into print.
But Marsh used his personal fortune
to gain the upper hand,
hiring a small army of fossil hunters
to out-compete his rival.
In 1878, Marsh bought an especially
promising quarry in Como Bluff, Wyoming,
from two frontier collectors.
It yielded tons of fossils,
including the near-complete skeleton
of a gigantic dinosaur
that Marsh named Brontosaurus.
Over the next 10 years, his men shipped
him more than 480 boxes
of dinosaur bones from Como alone.
Marsh named dozens of new species.
But his assistants could be ruthless
in their quest
to further Marsh’s scientific ambitions.
They sometimes destroyed fossils
just to prevent them
from falling into Cope’s hands.
Desperate to catch up with Marsh,
Cope invested his dwindling fortune
into silver mining.
The gamble failed,
and he was left nearly destitute.
While Cope contemplated selling
his precious collection,
Marsh was named lead paleontologist
for the US Geological Survey.
This well-funded branch of the government
often sponsored Westward expeditions,
giving Marsh even more resources
to vanquish his rival.
The Bone Wars spilled into public view
when Cope had a tabloid newspaper
publish an article accusing Marsh
of plagiarism, fraud, and corruption.
Marsh fired back and the two further
tarnished each other’s reputations.
Neither ever relented.
When Cope died, he donated
his skull to science,
hoping to prove that his brain was
larger than that of his enemy.
Marsh never accepted the challenge.
Although Marsh named more species
than Cope,
both men greatly expanded
our understanding of evolution.
But their egotistical one-upmanship
reminds us that,
in spite of its ideals,
science is a personal enterprise
conducted by individual—
and at times deeply flawed—
human beings.