The Bone Wars is the name given to a period of intense fossil speculation
and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated
rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. The two
paleontologists used underhanded methods to out-compete the other in the
field, resorting to bribery, theft, and destruction of bones. The scientists
also attacked each other in scientific publications, attempting to ruin the
other's credibility and cut off his funding. Originally colleagues who were
civil to each other, Cope and Marsh became bitter enemies after several
personal slights between them. Their pursuit of bones led them west to rich
bone beds in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. From 1877 to 1892, both
paleontologists used their wealth and influence to finance their own
expeditions and to procure services and fossils from dinosaur hunters. By
the end of the Bone Wars, both men exhausted their funds in fueling their
intense rivalry. Cope and Marsh were financially and socially ruined by
their efforts to disgrace each other, but their contributions to science and
the field of paleontology were massive; the scientists left behind tons of
unopened boxes of fossils on their deaths. The feud between the two men led
to over 142 new species of dinosaurs being discovered and described.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Wars>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1488:
Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed in Mossel Bay, having sailed
around the Cape of Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossel_Bay>
1959:
Hours after appearing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, USA,
American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The
Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their plane crashed shortly after
taking off from the nearby Mason City Municipal Airport.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died>
1966:
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first space probe to land on the
Moon and transmit pictures from the lunar surface to Earth.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9>
1996:
A 7.0 Ms earthquake struck Lijiang City, Yunnan, China, killing at least 200
people and injuring 14,000 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Lijiang_earthquake>
2007:
A large suicide truck bomb exploded in a busy market in Baghdad, Iraq,
killing at least 135 people and injuring 339 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_February_2007_Baghdad_market_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
oleaginous (adj):
1. Oily, greasy.
2. (of manner or speech) Falsely or affectedly earnest; persuasively suave
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oleaginous>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
When war is waged it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's
capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this
vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always
in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression
that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called
national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain
the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it.
--Simone Weil
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Weil>