Bone Wars

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

The Bone Wars were an infamous period in the history of paleontology when the two pre-eminent paleontologists of the time, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, competed to see who could find the most, and more sensational, new species of dinosaur. This competition was marred by bribery, politics, violations of American Indian territories and virulent personal attacks.

"These strange creatures flapped their leathery wings over the waves, and often plunging, seized many an unsuspecting fish; or, soaring, at a safe distance, viewed the sports and combats of more powerful saurians of the sea. At night-fall, we may imagine them trooping to the shore, and suspending themselves to the cliffs by the claw-bearing fingers of their wing-limbs."

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

The Bone Wars were triggered by the 1858 discovery of the holotype specimen of Hadrosaurus foulkii by William Parker Foulke in the marl pits of Haddonfield, New Jersey. It was the first nearly-complete skeleton of a dinosaur ever found, and sparked great interest in the new field of paleontology. The skeleton was sent to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, where it was named and described in 1858 by Joseph Leidy, who was perhaps the leading paleontologist of the time.


Cope worked for Leidy, and soon was working in the marl pits of southwest New Jersey. Together they made a number of discoveries, including the second almost-complete skeleton of a dinosaur, a carnivorous Dryptosaurus aquilunguis. They made arrangements for the companies digging up the marl, which was being used as a fertilizer, to contact them whenever any fossilized bones were unearthed. Cope moved to Haddonfield to be near the discoveries, and soon rivaled his mentor in fame.

At the time, Marsh was a professor at Yale University (which was still called Yale College), in New Haven, Connecticut, studying fossilized dinosaur tracks in the Connecticut Valley. As the first American professor of paleontology, the discoveries in New Jersey were of intense interest. He visited Cope, whom he knew from the University of Berlin, and was given a tour of the discovery sites. Together they unearthed some new partial skeletons, but the rivalry started soon after when Cope learned that Marsh had secretly returned and bribed the marl company managers to report any new finds directly to him.[1]

In 1870, the attention shifted west, and in 1877, specifically to the Morrison Formation in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado, which during the Cretaceous was on the shore of a great sea. Since both were wealthy — Cope was the scion of a wealthy Quaker family, and Marsh was the nephew of George Peabody, for whom Yale's museum is named — they used their own personal wealth to fund expeditions each summer, and then spent the winter publishing their discoveries. Small armies of fossil hunters in mule-drawn wagons were soon sending quite literally tons of fossils back East.

But their discoveries were accompanied by sensational accusations of spying, stealing workers, stealing fossils, and bribery. Among other things Cope repeatedly accused Marsh of stealing fossils, and was so angry that he stole a train full of Marsh's fossils, and had it sent to Philadelphia. Marsh, in turn, was so determined that he stole skulls from American Indian burial platforms and violated treaties by trespassing on their land. He was also so protective of his fossil sites that he even used dynamite on one to prevent it from falling into Cope's hands.

They also tried to ruin each other's professional credibility. When Cope made a simple error, and attached the head of an Elasmosaurus to the wrong end of the animal (the tail, instead of the neck), he tried to cover up his mistake. He even went so far as to purchase every copy he could find of the journal it was published in; but Marsh, who pointed out the error in the first place, made sure to publicize the story. Marsh was no more infallible, however. He made a similar error, and put the wrong head on the skeleton of an Apatosaurus (which was still being called the Brontosaurus). But his error was not discovered for more than a hundred years. In 1981, the Peabody Museum of Natural History finally acknowledged the mistake, and exhibits around the world had to be redone.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Edward Drinker Cope

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Othniel Charles Marsh

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Legacy

By most standards, Marsh won the Bone Wars. Both made finds of incredible scientific value, but while Marsh discovered a total of 86 new species, due in part to his discovery of the Como Bluff site, near Medicine Bow, Wyoming (one of the richest sources of fossils known), Cope only discovered 56. Many of the fossils Cope unearthed were of species that had already been named, or were of uncertain identification. While the species Marsh discovered include household names, like Triceratops, Allosaurus, Diplodocus, and Stegosaurus, even Cope's most famous discoveries, like the Dimetrodon, Camarasaurus, Coelophysis, and Monoclonius were more obscure. But their cumulative finds defined the field of paleontology; at the start of the Bone Wars, there were only nine named species of dinosaur in North America; after the Bone Wars, there were around 150 species. Furthermore, some of their theories — like Marsh's argument that birds are descended from dinosaurs; or "Cope's law", which states that over time species tend to get larger — are still referred to today.

Cope is widely regarded as the more brilliant scientist, but more brash and careless. He was so prolific, publishing more than 1,200 scientific papers, that he set a record he still holds to this day. Marsh in turn was colder and more methodical but he was the better politician. He moved easily among the members of high society, including President Ulysses S. Grant and the Rothschilds. He even befriended Buffalo Bill Cody and the Lakota Indian chief Red Cloud.

Their rivalry lasted until Cope's death in 1897, but by that time they had both run out of money. Marsh got Cope's federal funding cut off (including his funding from the U.S. Geological Survey), and Cope had to sell part of his collection. Marsh in turn had to mortgage his home, and ask Yale for a salary to live on. Cope nonetheless issued a final challenge at his death; he had his skull donated to science so that his brain could be measured, hoping that his brain would be larger than his adversary; at the time, it was thought brain size was the true measure of intelligence. Marsh never rose to the challenge, but Cope's skull is still preserved.[1]

While their collective discoveries helped define the budding new field of study, the race also had some negative effects. Their animosity and public behavior harmed the reputation of American paleontology in Europe for decades. Furthermore, the use of dynamite and sabotage by employees of both men destroyed hundreds of potentially critical fossil remains. It will never be known how much their rivalry has damaged our understanding of life forms in the regions which they worked.

There have been books written about the Bone Wars. Two notable examples are "The gilded dinosaur : the fossil war between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the rise of American science" by Mark Jaffe and "The Bonehunters' Revenge, Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest Scientific Feud of the Gilded Age" by David Rains Wallace.

Recently the Bone Wars has been the subject of a graphic novel, Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards, by Joe Ottoviani. It is not quite true to fact; the events have been randomized in order that the story reads more like a TV script. There is also a card game, "Bone Wars: The Game of Ruthless Paleontology", by James L. Cambias and Diane Kelly. The Bone Wars was also featured, in more fantastical form, in the book Bone Wars by Brett Davis, which includes aliens also interested in the bones.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Wars

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

To the west of Rock River and to the east of Medicine Bow lies Como Bluff. In the popular mind, Wyoming may be associated with Indian Wars, Range Wars, and Sheep Wars. Yet the Territory and Como Bluff was at the center of another war which gripped the public's attention during the last third of the 19th Century, a war which involved Indians, F. V. Hayden, John Wesley Powell, Yale University's Peabody Museum, the Philadelphia Acadamy of Natural Sciences, and the Smithsonian. Indeed, echoes of that war continue to reverberate today -- "The Bone Wars."

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

North Slope, Como Bluff dinosaur grave yard, 1934

In the 1860's paleontologists rarely collected their own specimens. It was common for collectors in the field to send fossils to a paleontologist for classification. Dr. Hayden's fossils were classified by Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897). Cope had been for a time a student of Joseph Leidy. Leidy, himself, about 1868, began receiving fossils from two of Judge Carter's sons-in-law, James Van Allen Carter and Joseph K. Corson. Carter, not related to Judge Carter, had married Judge Carter's daughter Anna and Corson married Ada. Corson was an assistant surgeon at Fort Fred Steele and later post surgeon at Fort Bridger. In 1872, Leidy visited Fort Bridger and was taken into the forbidding Washakie Basin by Carter and Corson. The Basin was described by Leidy as "an utter desert, a vast succession of treeless plains and buttes, with scarcely any vegetation and no signs of animal life." Indeed, he wrote, it was "undisturbed even by the hum of an insect." At the same time, Yale Professor Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1894) began a series of expeditions into the west to gather fossils. In 1877, Railroad workers discovered large bones near Como Bluff and notified Professor Marsh. Thus, it was discovered that while Wyoming may have been scarce in living fauna, it was rich in extinct life. The competition, like the competition for the last girls in a saloon before closing hour, was on between Marsh and Cope. Each had egos larger than the Uintatherium robustum discovered by Leidy. The uintatherium, named after the Uinta Mountains, was a eocene mammel looking much like a cross between a hippopotamus and an elephant. Cope, in fact, thought it to be related to the elephant and, thus, in a drawing put elephant ears on the animal. Both Cope and Marsh had more Uintatherium fragments than Leidy and, thus, both attacked Leidy and each other. Leidy, caught in the middle between the two, withdrew from further exploration in the West.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Excavation at Bone Cabin Quarry, 1898, Photo from Century Magazine, 1904

The Bone Cabin Quarry at Como Bluff took its name from the fact that a cabin belonging to a local trapper was made of dinosaur bones.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

 Diplodocus Leg and Foot, Como Bluff, 1898

The Quarry, about ten miles from Como Bluff, was discovered in 1897 by Walter Granger (1872-1941). After 1903, Granger diverted his attention to Paleocene and Eocene mammels. He primarily devoted his attention to Wyoming from 1903 to 1918. Others who worked in the area included Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh discussed below, and Barnum Brown, discussed with regard to the Bighorn Basin. In one year alone, some 30 tons of dinosaur bones consisting of some 141 individuals were removed from the quarry.

Originally, Cope and Marsh were friends, having met at the University of Berlin and having a common interest in the study of fossils. Marsh established himself as a professor at Yale without teaching duties as a result of a generous endowment by his uncle, George Peabody.

Cope was associated with the Philadelphia Acadamy and relied on his own personal fortune. Following an expedition to Kansas in which both participated, Cope assembled a skeleton of an Elasmosaurus, a marine sauropod, and published a paper concerning his discovery. Unfortunately, Cope, in his haste to announce to the world his new discovery, placed the head on the wrong end; that is, the head was placed on the tail. When the error was discovered, Cope immediately began buying back at his own expense all of the papers with the erroneous illustration. Marsh, however, not missing an opportunity to enhance his own reputation, made sure the whole world knew of his former friend's error and took delight in exposing Cope. Marsh sarcastically wrote that Cope should have named the elasmosaurus "Steptosaurus," "twisted reptile."

[Writer's note: Marsh made a similar error. It, however, was not acknowledged by the Peabody for more than 100 years. Marsh placed the wrong head on a skeleton of a brontosaurus. The Brontosaurus was used as a model for Brontosuauri all over the world. The error, however, was not corrected by the Peabody until 1981 and required exhibits in museums throughout the world to be changed.]

Additionally, Marsh began bribing Cope's workers to send him, Marsh, new fossils from Cope's fossil pits in New Jersey. The result was an animosity between the two. The animosity impacted on the U.S. Geological Survey with each backing different candidates for Director, Cope backing Dr. Hayden and Marsh backing John Wesley Powell.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Marsh Expedition of 1870, engraving from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1871

Things boiled over, however, in Wyoming. Both Cope and Marsh conducted expeditions to the Territory; Marsh using the military to provide protection against the Indians. Marsh used his influence interfered with Cope's ability to obtain accomodations or assistants at Fort Bridger and Cope was required to sleep in the Fort's hay yard. On Marsh's first expedition in 1870, Wm. F. Cody acted as a guide for the first leg of the journey. Cody remained a life-long friend of Marsh and would visit with him every time Cody's show would play in New Haven. In 1879, Cope showed up at the Como Bluff accusing Marsh of "trespassing" and stealing his fossils. Marsh directed that the dinosaur pits be dynamited rather than allow fossels to fall into the "wrong hands." On another occasion, Cope had a train load of Marsh's fossils diverted to Philadelphia. Marsh, in turn, would attempt to delay Cope's work by salting Cope's digs with odd pieces of bone fragments unrelated to the fossils from the period in question.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Indian Funeral Platforms, Marsh Expedition of 1870, engraving from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1871

On the expedition, Marsh crossed Lakota lands without permission in violation of the 1868 Treaty of Ft. Laramie. Nevertheless, Marsh seemed unconcerned about the Indians. As indicated by the above engraving, the expedition came across an Indian funeral platform, upon which rested the bodies of a man and woman, beneath lay the skeleton of a pony. It was the custom of some tribes of American Indians to place the bodies of the deceased on platforms with tokens of respect such a food. Additionally, there might be sacrificed as a token of honor a horse. After a period of time, some tribes would return and gather the bones of the deceased. Marsh's attitude was indicated by his admonition to the students:


"Well, boys, perhaps they died of small-pox; but we can't study the origin of the Indian race unless we have those skulls!"

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Turtle Fossil on Back of Horse, Marsh Expedition of 1870, engraving from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1871

Notwithstanding the concern by other members of the expedition as to ever more close smoke from Indian fires ahead, Marsh seemed only concerned with the collection of fossils. In one instance, he recovered the fossil of a giant turtle. While others wished to proceed in order to avoid a confrontation with the Indians, Marsh's only concern, regardless of the reluctance of the horse, was the exhibition of the turtle in his museum in New Haven.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Students Surprised by Snakes, Marsh Expedition of 1870, engraving from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1871

Other hazards faced the expedition. In one instance, while the students were bathing, an invasion of snakes occurred.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Red Cloud and Prof. O. C. Marsh, 1883

The Expedition was saved from being attacked by the Indians only by the fact that Marsh had personally befriended Red Cloud by promising to intercede with the Great Father on behalf of the Indians. Marsh kept his word. In 1883, Red Cloud visited New Haven and called upon Professor Marsh. Red Cloud observed:


"I remember the wise chief. He came here and I asked him to tell the Great Father something. He promised to do so, and I thought he would do like all white men, and forget me when he went away. But he did not. He told the Great Father everything, just as he promised he would, and I think he is the best white man I ever saw."


Cope had a different way of dealing with the Indians. When visiting Indian camps, he would amuse them by taking out his false teeth. The Indians were fascinated by an individual who could remove and then replace his teeth. Cope was the more affable of the two. Behind his back, Marsh was referred to at one of his clubs as the "Great Dismal Swamp." In contrast, one of Marsh assistant's Arthur Lakes, from the Colorado School of Mines, was surprised to discover upon meeting Cope, that Cope, rather than the Monstrum horrendum Lakes was expecting, was actually quite friendly.

[Kerry Lenzendorf]

Marsh Expedition of 1870

In total, Marsh personally conducted four expeditions into Wyoming between 1870 and 1874. After that time, members of his staff would conduct the excavations and ship the fossils back to New Haven. Pictured, left to right, George Bird Grinnell, Bill the cook, Charles Wyllys Betts, O.C. Marsh (standing), Alexander Hamilton Ewing, Henry Bradford Sargent, Eli Whitney (grandson of the inventor), Harry D. Ziegler, Charles T. Ballard, John Reed Nickolson, Charles McC. Reeve(? possibly John Wool Griswold), Charles Matson Russell. Grinnell later became the senior editor and publisher of Forest and Stream which was influential in the American conservation movement. Grinnell was invited by George Armstong Custer to accompany his 1876 expedition into the Black Hills as the expedition's naturalist. Fortuitously, Grinnell had another engagement and declined. He also was the founder of the original Audubon Society (discontinued in Jan. 1889) and is regarded as the "Father of Glacier National Park".

The animosity, nay, the hatrid one for the other, finally became public in January 1890. Cope had while on federally financed expeditions gathered numerous fossils, spending some $80,000.00 in his own funds on the effort. Nevertheless, in 1889 the federal government required that the fossils be turned over to the government. Cope blamed Marsh who had been sucessful in obtaining the upper hand with the Geological Survey. Thus, in an article in the New York Herald written by W. H. Ballou, a friend of Cope, Cope blasted Marsh with both barrels. Marsh had written a monograph on the evolution of the horse. Cope accused Marsh of stealing the work of Russian vertebrate paleontologist Vladimir Kowalevsky who had earlier written on the same subject. He claimed that his rival's work was "the most remarkable collection of errors and ignorance of anatomy and literature on the subject ever displayed." In one sense, Marsh did have a remarkable collection of errors. Over the years, Marsh had been lovingly collecting every perceived error that Cope had ever made.

The following week, Marsh responded in kind. Using his collection of errors, he claimed that Cope had committed "a series of blunders, which are without parallel in the annals of science." Marsh indicated that when the first two had met in Berlin, he suspected Cope's sanity. With regard to Kowalevsky, Marsh alleged that Kowalevsky "was at least striken with remorse and ended his unfortunate career by blowing out his brains," but, Marsh continued, "Cope still lives, unrepentant." In his haste to respond, Marsh was in error as to Kowalevsky. Although, Kowalevsky committed suicide as a result of his penury, he did not shoot himself. He used chloroform. While the public denunciations of each other were of short lived interest, the wounds inflicted by Cope on Marsh had an ultimate impact. Marsh wrote and published at his own expense a monograph on toothed birds. It was read by several congressman, with the result that Marsh was fired from his work with the Geological Survey as an example of the waste of public money.

The end result of the Bone Wars was that each exhausted their respective fortunes. Cope had to sell part of his collections. Marsh had to mortgage his house and beg Yale for a salary, the endowment from his uncle having been spent. Today, Cope is regarded as the more intellectual of the two, but is regarded as careless. Marsh is considered to be the better politician and was more careful in his work. Marsh has been accused of taking credit for the work of his students. Echoes of the Bone War reverberate today. Today great controversy exists among paleontologists as to whether birds are descended from dinosaurs. The theory was first proposed by Marsh in 1877.

 http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/bonewars2.html