25 May 2026

In the 1870s and 1880s, paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope waged what became known as the Bone Wars: a rivalry so bitter each hired spies in the other's camp, bribed fossil collectors, and reportedly dynamited excavation sites to deny the rival access. Between them they named over 130 dinosaur species, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Diplodocus. The feud was fueled entirely by personal hatred, but it produced the foundational framework of American paleontology.