[Rockhounds] The bitter dinosaur feud at the heart of palaeontology

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

In the chilly Berlin winter of 1863, two talented American palaeontologists
got talking at an otherwise unremarkable scientific meeting. The younger of
the two was a tall and handsome 23-year-old named Edward Drinker Cope, who
wore his thick hair slicked sideways and talked a lot. He had been sent to
Europe by his genteel Philadelphian family to put an ocean between him and
a young lady they deemed unsuitable.

The man he was talking to was Othniel Charles Marsh. He'd been born to a
poor farming family in rural New York, but had the benefit of a very rich
uncle to fund his education. At 32 years old, Marsh was reserved and a
little pompous. He wore a drooping walrus moustache and his hair was
beginning to thin.

Before they met, each man was enjoying the early fruits of promising
careers studying fossils, geology and natural history – both were talented,
ambitious and had access to family money. After their Berlin meeting, they
would go on to name a roll call of the world's most iconic dinosaurs:
Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Diplodocus and enormous Pterodactyls among them.

These two men were also about to embroil themselves in one of the bitterest
feuds in the history of science. What began amicably in Berlin would
descend throughout their lives into all-consuming jealousy, via subterfuge,
spying and sabotage. Their warring troupes would brandish weapons at one
another over the fossil-beds of the western US, and each man would pen
lengthy character assassinations spilling over dozens of thirsty pages in
the sensationalist press <http://oceansofkansas.com/NYHerald.html>.

But as 1863 drew to a close in Berlin, neither of them knew anything about
all that. They spent a few days together and toured the city
<https://archive.org/details/gildeddinosaur00mark/page/10/mode/2up> before
parting, exchanging addresses so they could keep in touch.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230119-the-dinosaur-feud-at-the-heart-of-palaeontology