Bone Wars
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The Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated riva
The rivalry between Othniel Charles Marsh (left) and Edward Drinker Cope (right) sparked the Bone Wars.
Marsh (back row and center), surrounded by armed assistants for his 1872 expedition. Marsh spent little time in the field himself, generally delegating these tasks to his agents.
The Morrison Formation at Como Bluff, Wyoming
Arthur Lakes's sketch of expedition members W.H. Reed (left) and Edward Kennedy in Como Bluff
Stegosaurus
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Stegosaurus is a genus of extinct herbivorous four-legged armored dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their ta
Bone Wars
…own collectors headed east for the winter, Reed sent carloads of bones by rail to Marsh throughout 1877. Marsh described and named dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, and Apatosaurus in the December 1877 issue of the American Journal of Science. Despite Marsh's precautions against alerting his rival to…
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1899 life restoration showing the plates lying flat on the back with spikes all over the back
1901 life restoration of S. ungulatus by Charles R. Knight with paired dorsal plates and eight tail spikes
S. stenops skull cast, Natural History Museum of Utah