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>

_______________________________
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>

_____________________________
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>

___________________________
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>