Rie G
6. Nerd Fight!
Although fighting is not something to be taken lightly, there are times when petty rivalry is just plain funny. Especially when scientists, or to be specific, palaeontologists are involved. Othniel Charles Marsh and Edwards Drinker Cope did not like each other and spent a large amount of their time making each other’s life miserable. Their bitter rivalry would later be dubbed ‘The Bone Wars’ (with a name like that you’d expect it to be much more interesting than it actually was ). Skirmishes over dig sites. Bribes. Sabotage. Sadly, no skeletons fighting.
The desperate need to out-do each other led them to a race to discover the newest specimens. In 1879, after Marsh discovered the partial skeleton of a dinosaur he would name ‘Apatosaurus’, one of his minions discovered an almost complete skeleton of what Marsh deemed was a new species; the ‘Brontosaurus’. The skeleton, however, lacked a head. No worries though! They just used another skull instead, possibly that of a Camarasaurus. Hurray scientific method!
Even though people became aware of this fact in the very early 1900s, the skeleton remained as it was until 1979 when the correct skull was finally placed on the skeleton.
