Competition among scientists can often be fierce, fraught with endless debates and debates, and sometimes even to extremes, with "fossil warfare" being one such example.
Also known as the "Great Dinosaur Fever," in the 1870s, two famous American paleontologists, during the exploration and excavation of dinosaur fossils, did whatever it took to suppress each other and grab as many fossils as possible for themselves. Their fight has been going on for more than 20 years, and even death can't stop it.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > both parties to the conflict</h1>
Edward Drick Kop came from a wealthy Quaker family and lived in Philadelphia, becoming a fellow of the American Academy of Natural Sciences in 1864 and teaching zoology at Haverford College.
Edward Drick Kop
Ossenel Challis Marsh comes from a poor family in New York, and he was fortunate to have an uncle who was a co-founder of JPMorgan Chase, George Pibadi. Known as the father of modern philanthropy, Marsh managed to persuade him to fund the establishment of the Peabadi Museum of Natural History at Yale University, with Marsh as the agency's director. With this position and the legacy left by Pibadi after his death, Marsh's financial situation was also good.
Ossenel Challis Marsh
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the first encounter of harmony</h1>
In 1864, Kop and Marsh met in Berlin and were friendly to each other at first, even naming new species after each other.
Soon, their personality discord was revealed, Popular science was competitive and impatient, and Marsh was more stable, slow and methodical. The two were proponents of different theories of evolution, and Kopp was a neo-Lamarckist who opposed Darwinism and advocated that acquired traits could be inherited. Marsh was a Darwinist who supported the theory of natural selection.
The only thing they have in common is a desire for fame and fortune.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the battle begins</h1>
In 1858, when Kopp was excavating a plaster specimen in a mud pit in The Town of Hadenfield, New Jersey, Marsh visited him, and the two men parted ways to bid a friendly farewell after an expedition together.
However, without The Popular's knowledge, Marsh bribed the fossil diggers to send them all the fossils they found.
After learning of this, Kopp was naturally very unhappy, and the already fragile friendship collapsed, and the two began to publish articles in the press to publicly attack each other. At one point, Marsh wrote that Kopp had made a huge mistake in reinventing Plesiosaurs , a type of plesiosaur — by placing his head on the end of his tail. In other words, Kop turned the neck and tail of the thin plate dragon backwards, the neck of the thin plate dragon is longer than the tail, and the head of the dinosaur in the following picture should be on the left side rather than the right side.
Popular science error version of the thin plate dragon
This accusation has caused a lot of damage to the popular science, not only damaged reputation, but also ruined money. In order to cover up his mistakes, he had to buy all the magazines that published Marsh's articles.
Enraged, Kopp retaliated by buying fossils in kansas and wyoming places that Marsh considered his own.
As exploration progressed, rock formations rich in dinosaur fossils were found in places such as Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming, and Marsh and Kopp came to these places to excavate.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > fossil warfare</h1>
Radical "fossil wars" began. Kopp was offered a position at the U.S. Geological Survey to work for the famous geologist Ferdinand Hayden. In 1872, with the convenience of work, popular science began to excavate the fossilized rock formations of Wyoming, and the harvest was very fruitful.
Popular's greedy attempt to attribute all the credit to himself infuriated other paleontologists, especially Marsh. Marsh also began to plan.
Kopp's good fortune didn't last long, and after Hayden was unable to continue to provide financial and equipment support, Kopp was forced to pay for the exploration and excavation himself.
One thing annoyed him was that he found that two members of the exploration team were actually Marsh's men. He bribed the two men to make them rebel against the water, and then it was Marsh's turn to get angry.
Once Marsh's fossil was mistakenly sent to Kopp, although Kopp returned the fossil to Marsh, but at the same time mocked Marsh, saying that Marsh was incompetent, and the relationship between the two further deteriorated.
In 1872, Marsh (center in the back row) with his exploration crew
By 1873, both Kopp and Marsh had made many discoveries, and since the relationship between them had become very hostile and completely uncooperative, they often published the same discoveries, published the same fossil samples, but gave the fossils different names.
Facts have proved that Marsh's naming method is more accepted by the industry, and the naming of popular science is few. Kopp felt humiliated again, but there was nothing he could do because Marsh's method had been widely accepted.
The collection of dinosaur fossils requires significant financial support. In 1873, Yale University sponsored Marsh for the last time, and in order to save money, Marsh asked 13 students to accompany him to explore at his own expense, reducing the travel cost by nearly 90%.
Marsh then adopted a different strategy, instead of collecting them himself, he paid local diggers to send him the fossils. Although the fossils in his hands have been enough for him to study for many years, for Marsh, the more fossils are always better.
In the mid-1870s, Kop and Marsh went to South Dakota, where many fossils were found during the Gold Rush. Since the entire territory was controlled by the native Sioux Indians, Marsh needed permission from chief Red Cloud to excavate.
Marsh promised to give Chief Red Cloud a large sum of money and said that when he returned to Washington, he would lobby the government to treat the Sioux well.
Marsh got permission from Red Cloud as he wished, but after collecting enough fossils, he fled with the booty to avoid the Sioux. Ironically, for political reasons with ulterior motives, Marsh later spoke publicly on behalf of Chief Red Cloud, indicating that the two were close.
Marsh and Chief Red Cloud
In 1877, during the construction of the Transcontinental Railway, Marsh received a letter from Wyoming. Two railroad workers (named Reed and Karin, respectively) told him that many dinosaur fossils had been found in the Como Cliffs area and that someone had gone looking for them.
Como Cliffs
Marsh, believing that those must be popular science, immediately sent money to Reed and Carlin, begging them to send him fossils. From the following year onwards, Reed sent Marsh a large number of fossils, in which Marsh found bones of Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Thunderosaurus, which further enhanced his status and popularity.
Schematic of Marsh's Stegosaurus skeleton in 1896
After some time, Carlin was dissatisfied with Marsh's practice of always delaying payments and turned to Popular Science.
Excavations in the Komo Cliffs area lasted for 15 years, and both Marsh and Kop's excavation teams experienced many hardships, not only living in harsh conditions, but also often having to be wary of rival intrigue and sabotage.
The two paleontologists fought fiercely, and in order to prevent the fossils from being taken by the other side, they backfilled the digging pits with mud and rocks, and even destroyed small or damaged fossils. In an altercation, workers from two teams threw stones at each other.
The allosaurus skeleton discovered by Kopp in 1879 at Como Cliff
By the end of the 1880s, both sides were exhausted by the frenzy of excavation. Kopp ran out of money and was forced to dig up fossils himself. Marsh also lost allies due to his reluctance to share his findings with others and his delay in paying commissions.
Even when Kop died in 1897, the competition was not over. Kopp challenged Marsh for the last time during his illness: both men donated their brains after their deaths, bigger than the others.
Marsh did not take up the challenge, and Popular Science's skull is still preserved at the University of Pennsylvania.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > postscript</h1>
Marsh's last discovery of dinosaur species than Kop seems to have won the fossil war, but in fact, there is no winner in this war. They all lost themselves in the pursuit of fame and fortune, and finally not only fell into pennilessness and social reputation, but were also forced to sell their houses and rent houses.
In order to obtain more fossils than the other, they resorted to improper means such as bribery and theft; in order to destroy each other's reputation, they attacked each other in scientific journals; in order to make what they could not get, they destroyed each other's excavation sites and even used explosives.
Due to their contradictory classification and naming of dinosaur species, the paleontological community has been confused for decades.
Marsh and Kop discovered a total of 142 new dinosaurs, and before them, only 9 dinosaurs had been found in North America. However, the cost of these new discoveries is too great, and their rough excavation has caused the destruction of a large number of fossils, cutting off the opportunity to find new fossils, which is a great harm to the study of paleontology.
A famous quote by George Washington perfectly sums up the story of Marsh and PopularOpto and their ending: no matter how fame is obtained, if there is no character to support it, reputation will eventually be destroyed.
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