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The American palaeontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh spent decades trying to destroy each other, with bribery, fossil theft and even reported dynamiting of dig sites. Between them they named more than 130 new species of dinosaur.

American West, 1877–1892

ScienceHistory

The story behind the card

The feud, later called the Bone Wars, peaked between 1877 and 1892, as both men hired crews to dig the rich fossil beds of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. Marsh named Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Diplodocus. The race also produced mistakes: Cope once put the head of the marine reptile Elasmosaurus on the end of its tail, and Marsh's Brontosaurus stood in museums with the wrong skull for decades. The two attacked each other in journals and newspapers, and both ended their lives short of money. Their finds filled American museums and sparked wide public interest in dinosaurs.

Türkçe oku
Amerikalı paleontologlar Edward Drinker Cope ile Othniel Charles Marsh onlarca yıl birbirlerini yok etmeye uğraştı: Rüşvet verdiler, fosil çaldılar, hatta anlatılanlara göre kazı alanlarını dinamitlediler. İkisi birlikte 130'dan fazla yeni dinozor türünü tanımladı.
Amerikan Batısı, 1877–1892

Sonradan “Kemik Savaşları” diye anılan bu husumet 1877-1892 arasında doruğa çıktı; iki adam da Colorado, Wyoming ve Nebraska'nın zengin fosil yataklarını kazmak için ekipler tuttu. Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus ve Diplodocus'a adlarını Marsh verdi. Bu yarış hatalara da yol açtı: Cope bir keresinde deniz sürüngeni Elasmosaurus'un başını kuyruğunun ucuna yerleştirdi; Marsh'ın Brontosaurus'u ise onlarca yıl müzelerde yanlış kafatasıyla sergilendi. İkisi bilimsel dergilerde ve gazetelerde birbirine saldırdı, ikisi de hayatlarının sonunda parasız kaldı. Buldukları fosiller Amerikan müzelerini doldurdu ve halkın dinozorlara ilgisini ateşledi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Bone Wars
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