The Bone Wars, also known as the “Great Dinosaur Rush”, refers 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 (of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia) and Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Peabody Museum …
How many dinosaurs were discovered during the Bone Wars?
In part 1 of this series, Dr Karl explains how the infamous Bone Wars lead to the discovery of
142 new dinosaurs
.
Who started the Bone Wars?
If you've had any exposure to the history of paleontology at all, you should know the names
Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope
. These late 19th century scientists waged the great “Bone Wars” against each other, each of the pair trying to outpace the other to become America's chief expert on prehistoric life.
What dinosaurs were discovered during the Bone Wars?
Cope discovered 56 new dinosaur species, while Marsh discovered 80 new species. Together, they discovered
Triceratops, Allosaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Coelophysis
.
Where did the Bone Wars start?
Most historians trace the start of the Bone Wars to 1868. This is when
Cope reconstructed a strange fossil sent to him from Kansas by a military doctor
. Naming the specimen Elasmosaurus, he placed its skull on the end of its short tail, rather than its long neck.
What was first dinosaur discovered?
The first dinosaur recognized by science –
the Megalosaurus
– was described in 1824 from a partially preserved jaw. The Iguanodon, the first herbivore dinosaur recognized as such, was known at the time only from some teeth and bone fragments.
What are dinosaur hunters called?
A paleontologist
is a scientist who studies paleontology, learning about the forms of life that existed in former geologic periods, chiefly by studying fossils. Some of the major paleontologists, fossil hunters, naturalists, anatomists, and dinosaurologists of all time are listed below.
Who won the Bone Wars?
Who won the “Bone Wars”? The real winners were the museums that ended up housing the two men's enormous collections
— Marsh's
at the Peabody Museum and the Smithsonian Institution; Cope's at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. These have remained a rich source of data for generations of paleontologists.
Why did the bone wars start?
The rivalry between Othniel Charles Marsh (left) and Edward Drinker Cope (right)
sparked the Bone Wars.
What is the dinosaur bones?
Its bones are
protected from rotting by layers of sediment
. As its body decomposes all the fleshy parts wear away and only the hard parts, like bones, teeth, and horns, are left behind. Over millions of years, water in the nearby rocks surrounds these hard parts, and minerals in the water replace them, bit by bit.
Which couple is named in the birth of dinosaur paleontology and what fossil did they discover?
The two even named a couple of new species after one another.
Cope named an amphibian fossil Ptyonius marshii
. Marsh returned the favor, naming a giant marine creature Mosasaurus copeanus. But Marsh's gesture was tinged with betrayal, and things quickly became competitive.
When did dinosaurs go extinct?
Dinosaurs went extinct
about 65 million years ago
(at the end of the Cretaceous Period), after living on Earth for about 165 million years.
How do rib bones give a clue about where a dinosaur lived?
They found
evidence of collagen proteins within tiny canals in the rib
and concluded they were “probably remnants of the blood vessels that supplied blood to the bone cells in the living dinosaur.”
What did Coelophysis look like?
Coelophysis was a primitive theropod dinosaur. Usually growing to length of about 2 metres (6.6 feet), it was
very light
, weighing only about 18–23 kg (40–50 pounds), and had a long, slender neck, tail, and hind legs. The head was long and narrow, and the jaws were equipped with many sharp teeth.
When did the first dinosaurs appear?
First Dinosaurs.
Approximately 230 million years ago
, during the Triassic Period, the dinosaurs appeared, evolved from the reptiles. Plateosaurus was one of the first large plant-eating dinosaurs, a relative of the much larger sauropods.
Are dinosaurs still alive today?
Other than birds, however,
there is no scientific evidence that any dinosaurs
, such as Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, or Triceratops, are still alive. These, and all other non-avian dinosaurs became extinct at least 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
